Taking the Blame
by Certain POV
Summary: Because of a nefarious plot concocted by the One Sith, Jacen Solo finds himself returning to a galaxy where he has been blamed for the actions of another: Darth Caedus. But how can that be when he WAS Darth Caedus? And where was he before? AU of Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi. Please review.
1. Chapter 1

"To anyone who is receiving this emergency transmission, please, help," the tinny, robotic voice said from the _Solo Quest_'s comm. "My master has just died of a fatal heart attack and I am not programmed to pilot the ship on which I am aboard nor am I able to engage the hyperdrive, much less input any navigational coordinates. This is Corellian Cargo Ship Number 5348456. I, protocol droid TC-57, am stranded with much needed foodstuffs for Selvaris. Again, please, help."

Jacen had received this emergency broadcast only mere hours after leaving Dathomir, where he had just completed his stay of the Raining Leaves clan. While he enjoyed his time there, he found that he did not learn as much from them as he had from the likes of the Baran Do Sages of Dorin or from the Aing-Tii monks of the Kathol Rift. Jacen had found the Dathomiri Witches with whom he had associated to be too mired in traditional ways of thinking that were not unlike the Jedi Order, and so he came away from them feeling... less than fulfilled on both an intellectual level and a spiritual level.

But now was not the time to reminisce about the times he had on his sojourn, which had reached its third year. Now was the time to investigate and help out this apparently stranded droid.

The emergency broadcast had brought Jacen to a system not far away from the world of Bakura, which was very far out even for the Outer Rim. As he had been approaching the source of the broadcast mere hours before, Jacen had his suspicions. For him, it wasn't the first time that a ruse like this had been attempted by pirates who were attempting to scam and subsequently raid good samaritans under the pretense of requiring help.

Fortunately for Jacen, he had the Force on his side, and his senses were able to tell him of the intentions of those who were aboard seemingly stranded craft. Even those pirates who had used droids to broadcast emergency signals from lone ships and then have other ships drop out of hyperspace to ambush whoever had come by to help were foiled by Jacen's abilities as a Force-using pilot.

While it was true that he did not have the same level of skill in flight as his twin sister Jaina or his late younger brother Anakin, he still had inherited a fair deal of his father Han's ability to pilot a starship, or in this case a modified YT-1300, to repel anyone who tried to give him a hard time. As such, he had been able to outmaneuver whoever had attempted to ambush him long enough to either destroy his enemies or disable them with some well-placed laser shots. It wasn't long after that he would have signalled the nearest authorities to bring the surviving pirates, if there were any, into the proper custody.

In the present, having just dropped out of hyperspace near the source of the stranded droid's emergency broadcast, Jacen waited a few minutes before responding. When no other ships had unexpectedly entered the system, he finally opened a channel to TC-57.

"This is Captain Jacen Solo of the YT-1300 freighter _Solo Quest_," he stated. "I'm here to help."

"Captain Solo," TC-57 said with relief, "thank the maker!" Jacen couldn't help but grin at that inadvertent reminder of one of C-3PO's catchphrases. "Would you please be so kind as to come aboard and do whatever it is you organics do to get this ship to Selvaris? As I'm sure you heard from my emergency broadcast, I'm unable to pilot this ship or even engage the hyperdrive-"

"Much less input any hyperspace coordinates," Jacen interrupted. "Yes, I heard. Kind of unfair of your master to put such limitations in your programming, isn't it?" He managed to hide his suspicions from his tone as he piloted the _Solo Quest_ forward toward the cargo ship.

"It's not in my programming to judge, Captain Solo," TC-57 responded astutely. "Only to serve in the best ways that I can within the limited parameters of my programming."

"Uh-huh," Jacen said as he aligned the _Quest_'s airlock with the other vessel's airlock. As the two ships were joined to allow Jacen access into the droid's spacecraft, he kept looking out his forward viewport for any signs of unexpected guests. He also kept his Force-senses alert, naturally.

Those same Force-senses were still on alert once he had finally boarded the cargo ship and met up with TC-57, a red-tinted protocol droid, in the vessel's short access corridor.

"If you will follow me to the cockpit, please, sir," the droid said before turning around and heading for his stated destination.

Jacen did as TC-57 requested and nearly gagged upon reaching the cockpit. Holding a hand over his mouth to withhold the gorge there from spilling onto the deck, Jacen looked at the already-rotting, and obviously very rank, corpse of the cargo ship's elderly male human pilot sitting in his titular station.

After choking his lunch back down, Jacen turned back to TC-57 and asked, "How long has he been dead?" _And why didn't you bother stowing him away somewhere where the smell wouldn't be so terrible for anyone who would've saved you?_ He had been too polite to ask that question and left it in his thoughts as he then covered up his nose to breathe through his mouth.

"Only for a day, sir," TC-57 replied.

"A day?" Jacen asked. "He already smells that bad... after... a day?"

At the word "bad," Jacen had started to feel dizzy. And once he had finished that last sentence, he collapsed to his side, his vision now blurry.

From what little he could make out through that blur, though, he saw the dead cargo ship pilot rise up from his seat and look down upon Jacen with what the latter thought was a sneer.

Jacen could swear, however, that the pilot was not only not rotting, but he wasn't even nearly as old as he had first appeared. But right before he finally passed out, Jacen could feel a presence around the other man that let him know that he actually was much older than he appeared.


	2. Chapter 2

The metal doors slid beside before Darth Krayt as he entered the chamber where TC-57 was in the midst of his most recent task. The droid was sitting at his assigned station monitoring a life-sized holographic projection of Jacen Solo, who was in a position that Krayt knew was not only familiar to the captive Jedi, but also to himself.

Solo was currently in an Embrace of Pain, a Yuuzhan Vong device meant to torture its victim—or rather, from the Vong's (former) collective point of view, help its user meditate—through various means of inflicting pain without killing the recipient. Krayt himself had long ago undergone this treatment when he was held captive by the Vong, and he knew that young Solo had also been tortured by a device like this during the war with the invaders.

However, what was different for Solo here was that he didn't have Vergere to help him get through the pain that Krayt saw that he was clearly suffering via the blue-tinted holographic projection. There was no real purpose to this pain here like there was when Vergere and the Vong had been inflicting this pain upon him; Krayt simply wanted to watch the Jedi suffer whenever he could. Allowing this Jedi any comfort during his captivity here, even if he would be more likely to understand Krayt better than any other Jedi could, went against his principles as a Sith Lord.

"My Lord, may I ask you a question?" TC-57 asked without turning away from the projection.

"You may, TC-57," Krayt replied. Considering how much of a good mood that he was in because of the pain that Solo was currently going through, the Sith Lord felt generous enough to indulge in any questions that even this mere droid deigned to ask.

"You have left me unaware of many aspects about this project regarding Jacen Solo. Why do you wish to keep this Jedi alive?" the droid asked. "You've already acquired a sample of his DNA for the cloning procedure. Do you anticipate any forthcoming problems that might lead to the procedure's failure?"

"I would not leave this procedure's success to chance," Krayt affirmed evenly. "And replicating material from material that has already been replicated, as you may know, TC-57, stands a good chance of becoming so diluted from its source material that it may not even resemble the source material any longer."

"Indeed, My Lord," TC-57 responded. "Thank you for elaborating."

"As you were," Krayt said before turning back and leaving the chamber.

However, there was more to keeping Jacen Solo alive than merely having a ready supply of original genetic material to work with should anything go wrong with the cloning process. But as loyal a servant as TC-57 was, there was only so much supplying of information that Krayt thought was necessary even to that droid.

Indeed, Solo wouldn't simply be cloned in body; he had to be cloned in mind, too. And there was only so much that mere genetic replication could do before the Force truly became a necessary requirement in the physical realm.

. . .

As it had felt when he was in the Embrace of Pain all those years before, it felt like an eternity of agony before Jacen was finally freed from this Embrace and brought to a room that must have been deliberately lit too light for him. It had been dark when he was in his most recent form of torture, so whoever his captors were, they had no doubt wanted to rival the Yuuzhan Vong for a hypothetical award for delivering the most unpleasant experiences imaginable to their captor.

While only being semiconscious from what he intellectually knew to be hours of torture rather than an eternity, Jacen was still cognisant enough to know that he was eventually lowered from this new Embrace of Pain by two robed and hooded figures. Their hoods cast a deep darkness over their visages, so Jacen had been unable to make out what species his captors were and his now-foggy Force-senses wouldn't allow him a read of who they were personality-wise.

His captors had dragged him between them by his arms out of the Embrace chamber and into the corridor that ultimately led to the bright metal room that Jacen was now in. He was currently seated in a bolted-down chair with titanium straps holding his wrists and ankles to the chair's rearmost legs.

Surprisingly, it wasn't long before there was the sound of the room's door opening behind him. Jacen didn't bother twisting around to look behind him and see who it was, partly because of his pain and partly because he knew that his visitor would reveal him/herself to him anyway.

But even in his pain-ridden stupor, Jacen's eyes still flashed wide in surprise when he saw that his visitor—and, with very little doubt, the leader of his captors—showed himself to the captive Jedi. Jacen's visitor was a tall, muscular human male with bony outgrowths across various sections of his body that appeared to be made of Yuuzhan Vong vonduun crab armor. And as if and the Embrace of Pain didn't remind Jacen of his time with the Yuuzhan Vong, he noticed that his visitor had eyes that were mismatched in color, not unlike the Vong Executor Nom Anor, who had caused Jacen and his family much trouble because of his contributions to his species' galactic invasion.

But what brought Jacen out from his recognition of his visitor being somehow related to the Yuuzhan Vong was when he noticed the color of the man's right eye. While his left one was blue, his right was a disturbing orange; disturbing because of its implication, which was all the more heightened by the man's dark robes.

This man was a Sith, Jacen realized with horror. And not only that, but so were the two figures who brought him into this room; while the Force somehow, or at least seemingly, eluded him in this realization, he knew that was who his captors were. Based on what Uncle Luke had told him of his times with Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, there was very little doubt in his mind that those keeping him here served the dark side of the Force.

"Who... are... y-"

Jacen wasn't allowed to complete his question before the visitor violently placed his hands on each side of the Jedi's head. The feelings that followed throughout Jacen's entire being made all of his experiences in the Embrace of Pain—from when he had first endured one of those devices on Belkadan in the early days of the Yuuzhan Vong War to just a few minutes ago—seem like pleasant strolls down a beach. He didn't know how that would be possible without simply killing him, but somehow, this Sith Lord found a way.

But as painful as this experience was, it was over much more quickly than Jacen would have thought (but it still wasn't soon enough for his tastes). While Jacen sat there panting and sweating from what his visitor just did to him, the visitor himself had stumbled back from the ordeal and collapsed to one knee.

A second later, the door behind Jacen opened up again and two cloaked figures—he wasn't sure if they were the same ones who brought him in here—entered to surround the man who seemingly had more trouble dealing with what had just occurred than Jacen. Both figures carefully brought their Master up to his feet—Jacen had a strong, non-Force feeling that he was their Master—and gently guided him out the door.

As Jacen wondered how long it would take his captors to come and collect him so that he could be returned to the Embrace of Pain, he hoped that it would be long enough to let him catch his breath and regain not only his composure, but also his elusive Force-senses.

But in spite of the mystery surrounding his Force-senses not being with him right now, Jacen couldn't help but smirk. Whatever his visitor had done to him, he somehow inadvertently let Jacen know something about him: he was the one who brought him here in the first place, the one who had fooled him by pretending to be a dead cargo pilot.

That knowledge may not, at first glance, seem to be of too much strategic importance given the predicament that Jacen was in. But for Jacen, it meant something significant, and it was in conjunction with how the Sith Lord had reacted when he did whatever he did to Jacen: his visitor wasn't nearly as powerful as he thought.

Because the fact that this Sith just let Jacen know even that tiny bit about himself may be a weakness that the Jedi could exploit. In the future, should his lead captor come by to lay his hands on his head again, Jacen may be able to find a way to have that work against the Sith Lord.

But first, he had to find a way to regain his grasp of the Force.

. . .

As the two Sith were hoisting their Master up by his arms down the corridor, leading him away from the room currently inhabited by Jacen Solo, the figure to Krayt's right urged, "My Lord, we must get you into stasis immediately. You need time to recuperate."

"No," Krayt growled emphatically before planting his heels hard against the floor beneath him and the two Sith guiding him. They all came to an abrupt stop before Krayt continued with, "You must take me to the cloning facility _immediately_. The knowledge that I carry is not mine and it is in danger of being lost if it is not transferred into the clone at once."

The two Sith stood dumbfounded as they looked between their Master at each other, silently communing through the Force if they should do as Krayt said.

"Now!" the leader of the One Sith shouted.

The Sith carrying Krayt between them didn't hesitate this time as they continued on their path. But this time, instead of heading to the juncture that would have led them to their Master's hibernation chamber, they instead headed for a different juncture.

This juncture inevitably brought all three of them into a room where a developing fetus, attached to various tubes and breathing apparatus, was now floating in a large liquid-filled container.

Upon entering this room, Krayt stopped his two followers in their tracks again and shrugged himself out of their grasp. He then marched hurriedly to the container, placed both hands on its transparisteel, closed his eyes, bowed his head, and allowed all that he gathered from his violent mind-meld with Jacen Solo to flow into the developing mind of the fetus.


	3. Chapter 3

_Embrace... Embrace... Embrace..._

_Meld._

_Embrace... Embrace... Embrace..._

_Meld._

_Embrace... Embrace... Embrace..._

_Meld._

And between these two states, the only constant was pain.

Of course, Jacen was in the Embrace of Pain for far longer than the mind-melds. But the melds served as great punctuations to the agony that was given by the Embrace, like the crescendo to a song. They may have been short, but they always provided the greatest impact.

But throughout what he determined to be a purposeless pain—at least it was more or less purposeless when it came to the Embrace—Jacen always held onto some hope for escape and a full reconnection to the Force. This was not the first time that the Force had been apparently stripped from him; his time with Vergere would never be forgotten.

It didn't escape Jacen that Vergere had been helping him during that time, whereas his captors here were not. So a more cynical person would be inclined to think that because there was no one helping him here, or at least no one who thought they were helping him here, Jacen's chances of reclaiming the Force and escaping were essentially nonexistent.

However, even ignoring the Jedi creed that basically told him to never give up on hope, the main reason that Jacen held onto that notion was because of what he was gaining from the mind-melds with the man who was committing them. A long time passed between each meld—how much, Jacen was, of course, uncertain—and he didn't always get something from the mind of this man.

But in time, Jacen came to learn what this man was doing to him. He came to extrapolate that the purpose of these melds were to extract information from Jacen's brain. Jacen himself was unsure of what was being taken from his mind, and if he was losing any memories, he wouldn't know about it. He still retained his identity, his childhood memories, his experiences from the Yuuzhan Vong War, the knowledge that he gathered from his postwar sojourn, and virtually everything else in between. So whatever the man was taking from him, it was leaving Jacen's memories intact.

At another point between all of this torture, Jacen came to learn how he had been captured in the first place. Apparently, in the cockpit of that cargo ship, Jacen had been knocked out by an anaesthetic gas that had flooded the whole vessel. The man who caught him and who was committing these mind-melds had taken a temporary immunizing agent that allowed him to retain his consciousness so that he could bring Jacen back here (wherever that was).

Jacen hoped that, soon, he would be able to get more useful information from his lead captor and torturer. It would be nice to know just how his Force-senses were being suppressed when the Sith around him—or at least the one performing the mind-melds—seemed to have their own Force-senses just fine. He did not have a similar moment of pain that stripped his connection to the Force like he had when Vergere began teaching him her views, so there had to be another explanation, something that was based more in the physical world than in the Force. It would go without saying that things like his captor's name and their location would also prove to be most invaluable to Jacen.

However, it went on like this for quite some time, where Jacen received little to no information beyond those few answers that he was able to glean from his captor's mind. If he had to hazard a guess, Jacen thought that it must have been months of this gruelling torture that could have been going on for the better part of a year.

Not unlike his time with Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong.

But Jacen wasn't even thinking about his unofficial teacher or her associates when the key to his release was formed from yet another mind-meld with his captor.

As Jacen was undergoing yet another round of unmitigated pain that bordered on killing him, the image of an all-too familiar female Fosh flashed into his mind, staring back at him as if she were still alive. He couldn't make out her surroundings; she simply stood there as if in a dark void, a void as black as one of the projectile-swallowing singularities generated by the dovin basals of any Yuuzhan Vong vessel.

But Jacen knew that he wasn't looking at Vergere as he once knew her. He was looking at her as his captor once knew her.

This was yet one more piece of information that his captor let slip; he had known Vergere.

The Fosh's image lasted for about a minute in Jacen's mind as he sat paralysed in the same void with her, unable to even speak to her. He thought, for about a quarter of that time, that maybe this was her way of trying to reach out to him from beyond the grave, through the Force. In that brief time, Jacen had hoped that he would have somehow reestablished his connection to the Force.

He ultimately sensed no familiarity from what he was seeing. It was a still image, a memory of her, from the memories of Jacen's captor. But even that image brought a level of comfort to Jacen, one that he hadn't felt since before he was captured by the Sith.

Then Vergere's image abruptly fell away, plunging Jacen back into the reality of his situation. He was once again back in the interrogation room, cuffed up to the bolted-down chair that he was sitting on, panting from exertion as he looked back at his captor.

Only this time, instead of reeling back from the effort of the mind-meld, the Sith Lord was screaming.

Two cloaked figures entered the room—Jacen still wasn't sure if they were always the same people who carried their Master out of these four walls—and grabbed Jacen's captor by his shoulders, one figure on each side, to get him out of here.

But instead of allowing himself to be taken away, the Sith Master abruptly spread his arms out, sending his aides flying to the walls of the room behind them via Force-assisted push. They collapsed like ragdolls to the floor; without his Force-senses, Jacen couldn't determine if they were dead or merely unconscious.

But for the moment, the two Sith's conditions weren't occupying Jacen's attention. The Sith Master was still screaming right in his face, inadvertently threatening to deafen the captive Jedi.

Yet Jacen couldn't help but notice that even as his captor was screaming at him, his attention wasn't even on his Jedi charge. Even though his eyes lay on Jacen, they weren't focused on him; he was somewhere else mentally.

And just like that, Jacen had regained his Force-senses.

As if that were his cue, the Sith Master stopped screaming, and his attention once again matched his gaze upon Jacen.

The two of them only shared a brief moment of confusion before they simultaneously sprung into action. The Sith Master made a grab for Jacen's head with both of his hands while the captive Jedi used a powerful Force-push against the base of his shackles to shatter them; at the same time, he kicked himself from the floor, flipping himself backwards in the process.

The backward flip sent the Sith Master falling back to the floor in his chair as the soles of Jacen's bare feet—he didn't even know they were bare this whole time on account of the overwhelming painful sensations that he had been enduring, nor did he realize that he was all but naked except for his underwear—had planted themselves beneath the large man's jaw. Barely a second later, Jacen landed like a cat on the floor, with both the chair that he had been sitting in and the one that his captor sat in having toppled back in front of him. The Sith Master, meanwhile, had rolled back over his shoulder and smoothly returned to his own booted feet to face Jacen.

The Sith sent out a burst of Force-electricity from one hand and sent it hurtling toward Jacen. But the now-freed Jedi pivoted out of the way and added his own Force-strength to the electricity as he directed it toward the interrogation room's door behind him.

It only took the Sith Master less than a second to realize what Jacen had intended to do before he cut off the flow of electricity, but it was too late. The door had been blown out, and without any hesitation, Jacen used the Force to hurl both chairs at the Sith Lord. The latter, however, used his own telekinetic abilities to sweep each chair aside, but the distraction worked long enough for Jacen to quickly turn around, head out the door, turn right, and begin sprinting away toward the turbolift that he spotted down the corridor.

As he ran, Jacen sensed the Sith Master give chase after him, and it wasn't long before his danger-senses tingled. Jacen ducked to the right without breaking stride to the turbolift as another stream of Force-electricity, no doubt courtesy of the Sith Master, passed by. Jacen turned around so that as he then ran backwards, he sent a powerful Force-wave toward his crab-armored enemy.

The torrent of electricity ceased again as the Sith Master abruptly stopped in his tracks to erect a Force-wall so that Jacen's attack dissipated harmlessly against it. Once that was done, however, the Sith Master resumed his pursuit of Jacen, who had now turned back to run forward again as he reached the turbolift entrance.

The doors had been blown back down into the depths of the turbolift shaft thanks to the Sith Master's recent torrent of Force-electricity reaching and striking them. However, that was no problem for Jacen, who, without breaking stride, Force-jumped up one level into the shaft to reach the opposite wall. Once he did, he Force-pushed off of the wall with both arms and legs to reach the next level by returning to the wall where, two levels below, the Sith Master had reached the open turbolift entrance. Jacen's zigzag ascent through the turbolift shaft was soon matched by the Sith Master, and the pursued Jedi quickened his pace upward toward the last level.

But just before he reached that last level, his danger senses tingled, but it was too late. A course of electricity surged up from his soles, fired off by the Sith Master below, but thankfully, it only lasted for a few seconds, allowing Jacen enough time to recover his wits and grab both hands upon the ledge of one of the uppermost turbolift entrances.

He looked down, and the Sith Master, now riding on top of the ascending turbolift that the shaft was built for, fired off another round of electricity from his hand. Jacen quickly released one hand from the ledge and used that hand to divert this new torrent of electricity away from him with the Force. The electricity's new direction sent it to a set of turbolift doors on the opposite wall, blowing them into the corridor of that level.

But the Sith Master only intensified the electric torrent, and this time, it broke through Jacen's Force-diversion and enveloped him with pain. He let go of the ledge completely and fell back down to the ascending Sith Master in a semiconscious state as the latter finally ceased the torrent.

Before Jacen had an opportunity to compose himself and even try to push himself to his knees, the Sith Master stomped one foot on the Jedi's back, pinning him to the turbolift's roof as it stopped its ascent. A second later, it began a descent.

Even in his semiconscious state, Jacen couldn't help but note that. Was the turbolift being controlled by someone under the Sith Master's command from a control center or something like that?

"Give up, Jedi," the Sith growled. "Even with your Force-abilities returned to you, you cannot hope to escape; not while I live, anyway."

Jacen seethed for a moment, then began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" the Dark Lord asked in angered confusion.

"Vergere scared you, didn't she?" Jacen asked.

Even without being able to see the look on the Sith Master's face, Jacen knew that his opponent must have been taken aback by the mention of the dead Fosh's name based on the slight decrease of pressure on his back.

And it was that slight decrease that allowed Jacen to muster up a powerful Force-wave from within his entire being that blew the Sith Master back. He hit the turbolift's roof hard on his back, and he couldn't recover quickly enough as Jacen swiftly pushed himself back up to his feet, turned to one side to one of the turbolift doors that was descending, used the Force to blow it out onto that level's corridor, and jumped through that now-open entrance. Ahead of him in the corridor was a door, and without even knowing where it would take him, he headed toward it without hesitation.

While not knowing where he was now, Jacen hoped that he could at least lose the Sith Master from here. That hope was quickly dashed when he sensed his presence behind him catching up now. But before Jacen could worry about his pursuer firing off another torrent of Force-electricity, two cloaked Sith appeared in a juncture up ahead in the corridor. Both figures blocked Jacen's path before they unhooked their lightsabers from their belts and activated their red blades.

Jacen's bare feet slid across the polished floor in an attempt to stop in his tracks so that he wouldn't be killed by either of the saber-wielding Sith. However, right before he came to that stop, the Sith Master's voice shouted from behind him, "No, we need him alive!"

Both cloaked figures looked past Jacen to their Master as if in askance, and it was that second-long distraction that allowed Jacen to send a Force-wave that knocked both figures prone to the floor. While one of them landed holding their blade out and away from them, the other wasn't so lucky; their blade had sheared right through their left shoulder, and that figure emitted a painful feminine screech.

Jacen then used the Force to call to him the dismembered Sith's lightsaber and he continued down the corridor, heading toward her and her still-intact companion. The latter bounded from the floor to Jacen, swiping out with their own lightsaber.

But Jacen pivoted off to the side, allowing the cloaked figure to pass harmlessly by before he swiped at that figure's back. A long and deep cauterized furrow had been cut into the Sith's back, and he collapsed dead to the floor. Jacen, not even breaking stride, had already turned back and resumed his course for the door ahead of him.

He used the Force to blow that door out and he found himself in a large hangar bay with various parked ships of different makes and designs. While continuing his run because of the Sith Master still on his heels, Jacen looked around and he quickly found a hiding spot that he took after deactivating the Sith lightsaber that he stole. Mere seconds later, Jacen's dark pursuer entered the hangar bay, stopped to scan the area for a quarter of a minute, and then began looking for the Jedi like a predator stalking prey in a jungle.

"Are you going to try to tell me to give up again?" Jacen asked his pursuer in a mocking tone.

His voice echoed throughout the hangar bay. And with Force-aid, he made sure that the Sith Master wouldn't be able to tell where he was in here even as he masked his own Force-presence.

Just as Vergere had taught him a long time ago.

"You think you can escape just because you got this far, Jedi?" the Sith Master retorted. "Even if you make it inside one of these ships, I'll have found you and stopped you from escaping. And even as we speak, I have reinforcements coming here to help me secure you."

"I didn't think a big scary Dark Lord of the Sith needed help to catch one little Jedi in his own Temple," Jacen returned, still mocking.

"Where are you?" the Sith Master intoned. But even as he did, the panting of his exertion became obvious. The adrenaline from the chase was wearing off, and the weakness that usually came from his mind-melds with Jacen was starting to show.

"Getting a little tired?" Jacen asked sardonically.

"I will find you," the Sith Master said, still panting. "You will not escape."

"Oh, come on, now you're just starting to sound like a desperate HoloNet villain," Jacen said. "Look, if you're gonna be a bad guy, you gotta learn to avoid the cliches if you wanna curb at least _some_ mockery from the good guys."

"I thought Vergere would've dispelled this pathetic notion of good and bad, light and dark, from your mind," the Sith Master returned.

"She broadened my view, yes," Jacen said more seriously this time. "But that doesn't mean I just let go of all the Jedi principles I've been taught since I was a child."

The Sith Master scoffed. "Then she failed to do as she set out to do. Just as I predicted."

"Predicted what?" Jacen asked, all traces of mockery now gone from his tone.

"She had hoped to lure you to the dark side of the Force by spouting rhetoric about how there were neither light nor dark sides," the Sith Master elaborated, "that there was only the Force. That whatever light or darkness exists only exists within us."

A moment of silence passed before the Sith continued with, "Yes, she tried to tell me the same thing. I never believed it. And I, like you, had been under Yuuzhan Vong captivity. I had undergone the Embrace of Pain the same as you, Jacen Solo. To buy into this foolish notion of a Unifying Force reveals your own childish naivete as a teenager, and it makes me laugh to think that you still hold true to it even in your adult years."

"Then you were a failed student," Jacen replied defensively.

"As if I would ever view that repulsive little bird as a teacher," the Sith Master spat. "I came to learn the truth through the Sith, not through her lies."

_Everything I tell you is a lie_.

Those words seemed to come so clearly from the past, it was as if Vergere had been standing over Jacen's shoulder from his hiding spot. He had learned what those words had meant; did this Sith Master learn the same?

If so, he obviously came to a different conclusion than the one Jacen had; the wrong conclusion.

Before Jacen could try to defend Vergere again, it was at that moment when a contingent of Sith arrived. Jacen didn't know how many there were from his hiding spot, but he wasn't willing to engage them, especially not with their Master aiding them, weakened though he was.

As the Dark Lord began issuing orders to his subordinates to search the hangar bay, Jacen decided that now was the time to play his hand. He hadn't practised the Aing-Tii teleportation method in months, and even then, he had only done it to non-living objects aboard the _Solo Quest_.

During his visit with the Aing-Tii monks a year prior, his teacher, Tadar'Ro, told him that the skill of successfully teleporting oneself or other living beings instead of non-living objects was a tricky one, one mastered by those who were considered truly great in the Aing-Tii civilization.

"And even then, it should not be done under duress or stress," Tadar'Ro had warned him via the translator device that gave him Jorj Car'das's voice. "If you are unsuccessful, you would die. Either your atoms and molecules would be scattered throughout space-time, or you could end up with your insides out."

If he was going to do it to himself, even if it meant risking death, Jacen had to do it now. Just ahead of him from his current hiding spot—as he had been moving from spot to hidden spot during his conversation with the Sith Master—was the _Solo Quest_ itself. While a part of him thought that he might as well walk out and just let the Sith take him, the much stronger part in his mind told him that he had to do this or else he would be put back into that torture for whatever nefarious reasons that the Sith Master had in mind.

Death would be better than to allow the Sith to continue their plans with Jacen. He only hoped that, even though he was under duress, he could foil their plans and still be alive afterwards.

So Jacen closed his eyes and began performing the technique of teleporting, but this time, he directed the energies involved at himself, with the intention of transporting himself into the _Solo Quest_'s cockpit. Master of this or not, this was his one shot at escape.

Two seconds later, with the _Quest_'s cockpit in mind, the diffuse light of the Sith Temple hangar bay was replaced by darkness. When Jacen opened his eyes, he stumbled in shock when he saw that he was, indeed, in his own ship's cockpit, the entire vessel plunged in darkness from inactivity and filled with dust from what had to be months of accumulation.

After making a quick search of himself to make sure that he was still intact—that he wasn't missing any body parts and the like—Jacen sat himself down in the pilot's seat and hurriedly began the process for a cold start to get the _Quest_ out of here as quickly as possible.

It was at that point, when he looked out the cockpit viewport, that a congregation of Sith spotted him from the hangar bay deck. Without hesitation, he brought the _Quest_'s belly cannons online and began spraying volleys of giant lasers upon the congregation. Many of them scattered throughout the hangar to seek cover, while those few who were dumb enough to stand their ground and activate their lightsabers in a vain attempt at deflecting the laser shots were blasted away into their composite atoms and molecules.

Unfortunately, their Master wasn't among the congregation; Jacen couldn't help but think that he liked to have seen that man at least flee, if not get blown to pieces.

Seconds later, the _Solo Quest_ was up in the air and she began a tight spin around the hangar, firing indiscriminately among the Sith. Some of them, whether they were trying to find cover or had leaped up to try to cut at the ship with their lightsabers, were blasted into oblivion, while others were simply trying not to get killed.

It didn't take long before the Sith Master came into view, and before Jacen gave him a chance to defend himself or let him hide, the Jedi fired off a volley of lasers at him; Jacen couldn't give him a chance to unleash a torrent of Force-lightning that could bring down the _Quest_.

But instead of running or raising his lightsaber in defense, the Sith Master raised the hand that wasn't wielding his lightsaber.

However, Jacen couldn't see what the Dark Lord had done or intended to do with that hand, as the latter had been enveloped by the laser volley.

The Jedi escapee didn't bother to see if the Sith Master had successfully managed to block the volley with the Force or if he had been incinerated by it; either way, it would have taxed his power to defend himself from it, Jacen knew, and whether or not he was dead or simply reeling from the experience, he was no threat right now. So without wasting anymore time, and while still blasting away at the Sith who were in his line of sight and the other ships around him so that none of them could give chase to him in the air, Jacen concentrated a laser volley from his port cannon to the roof of the hangar bay.

That section of the roof was soon blown out into the sky, and Jacen flew the _Quest_ out through that makeshift exit. In no time at all, he left the atmosphere of the planet that he had no doubt been trapped on for months, quickly had the world's coordinates logged into the _Quest_'s navicomp, and then input the coordinates for Denon, the current capital of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliance, before launching into hyperspace.

...

When Jacen Solo had fired upon him, the Force-shield that Darth Krayt had raised to defend himself from the laser volley was only partially successful. It had kept him from incineration, but the force of the blasts had been so powerful that it sent Krayt flying back through the hangar entrance/exit that Solo had destroyed upon arriving here.

Once the _Solo Quest_ had been gone, and none of the surviving Sith were able to give chase because Solo had been smart enough to destroy all of the other ships in his escape, several of Krayt's surviving followers found him unconscious in the corridor outside.

When they reached him, he gained consciousness quickly and rose up into a sitting position as if brought back from the dead.

And mixed in with the fatigue displayed in his facial and body expressions and quick breaths was his rage.

"He escaped," he stated in a low growl.

"Y-y-yes, My Lord, he did," the Chagrian Darth Wyyrlok said with hesitation. He dared not take one more step toward his Master lest he risk angering him and ensuring his own demise by his hand.

Krayt's low growl turned into a high roar, and accompanying it was a small Force-wave that knocked the surviving Sith close to Krayt off their feet.

Krayt then picked himself up and waved Wyyrlok and the rest of them up. The One Sith Master then doubled over from the pain in his stomach, and Wyyrlok and another cloaked One Sith member decided that now would be appropriate to approach their Dark Lord to help. Wyyrlok took Krayt's right shoulder while the cloaked One Sith member took the other, and between them, they began to carry their Lord to the infirmary.

"The... cloning... lab," Krayt growled.

Wyyrlok looked to the other One Sith member and nodded. "As you wish, My Lord," the Chagrian said.

"The rest of you, clean up that mess!" Krayt shouted back as he was led away.


	4. Chapter 4

"What the?!" Jacen—now dressed up again courtesy of the contents of the _Solo Quest_'s wardrobe closet—exclaimed from his ship's pilot seat.

The _Quest_ had only been a few hours from reaching Denon when it had been abruptly pulled from hyperspace by the gravity well projector of an Interdictor Star Destroyer. The system that both the _Quest_ and the Interdictor were in had nothing but a standard yellow sun several hundred million kilometers away with a few barren planets orbiting just outside of its habitable zone; there was nothing, and nobody, else in the system to help Jacen.

Before the Jedi could turn his ship away, he had been, predictably, caught in the Interdictor's tractor beam. In less than two seconds, the _Solo Quest_ was being pulled in toward much larger ship's hangar bay.

At that moment, Jacen started to recall from one of his Uncle Luke's stories that he had been in a similar situation during Grand Admiral Thrawn's war against the New Republic. Luke had used the Imperials' tractor beam that was bringing in his X-wing against them to escape by pulling a full reverse acceleration before firing a pair of proton torpedoes at Thrawn's Star Destroyer _Chimaera_, forcing the larger ship to break its tractor beam on the X-wing.

But before Jacen could even attempt to implement that plan, he saw through the _Quest_'s forward viewport that a pair of TIE fighters had been launched from the Interdictor's hangar. Jacen had no time to bring any of his ship's laser cannons online before the TIEs each fired at strategic areas of the _Quest_, jostling his ship even as it was still being pulled in toward the Interdictor. He looked at his sensors to see what the fighters had done to his vessel; they blew away all of the _Quest_'s cannons except for the one in her belly, which only seemed to be spared because it had been retracted back into the vessel proper during Jacen's trip through hyperspace previously.

Of course, that still left Jacen the options of launching a complement of either proton torpedoes, like his Uncle Luke had done all those years ago, or concussion missiles at the Interdictor to set himself free of its grasp. And the two TIEs could still be taken out afterwards if Jacen used the belly cannon correctly; using it now, while still caught in the tractor beam, would only increase his chances of even that being destroyed by either fighter.

However, all thoughts of escape evaporated from Jacen's mind when both TIEs subsequently, and quickly, destroyed his means of eluding their mothership and leaving the system. While one fighter targeted and destroyed his subspace engines after piercing through the _Quest_'s shields with a violent barrage of turbolaser fire, the other TIE, with a similar shield-piercing barrage, took out his hyperdrive.

Without either of those key components, there was no point of unleashing a volley of proton torps or conc missiles at the Interdictor; he'd just end up adrift in space, and that was if the pirates decided to be nice and leave him marooned in this system for destroying their Interdictor's tractor beam.

Well, whoever his captors were—Jacen sensed through the Force that they weren't Sith, which led him to believe that they must have been pirates—they wouldn't take him without a fight. While he couldn't find his lightsaber aboard the _Quest_ during the initial transit through hyperspace from the Sith planet, he still had the lightsaber of that cloaked figure whose arm he had chopped off back in that Sith Temple. It hung on his belt, and while he looked at it with mild disgust—given that it was wielded by someone who followed the tenets of the dark side of the Force—he knew that he had little choice but to use it against these pirates.

But then the TIE that had taken out the _Quest_'s hyperdrive took a position within the tractor beam's path and fired some kind of tether that pierced through the Jedi vessel's top hull. At the sound of metal being ripped apart twice within the span of less than a second, Jacen swivelled around in his chair and saw the tethered line burying a metal arrow in the deck between and behind the pilot and copilot seats. Jacen quickly looked up to see if air would start blowing out through the edges of the impromptu entrance that the tethered arrow had created in the _Quest_, but he saw that the gap had already been sealed up by some grey gelatinous substance that had been hardened to what appeared to be the quality of duracrete; where did that grey substance come from? Jacen had wondered. Did the tether itself do that?

Of course, before he could have a chance to think more on that matter, his eyes were drawn back to the deck where the arrow that dug in there had split open into four pieces that clattered into individual pieces around the tether's base. From that separation came a green gas that quickly filled up the cockpit.

_Oh, come on, not again_! Jacen thought as he tried to hold his breath from the gas.

But even as he tried to look into one of the cockpit's compartments for an emergency rebreather, he passed out.

. . .

For all of the good that it might do, Krayt tried to meditate in his bedchamber; acting against Darth Wyyrlok's wishes to put his Master back into stasis immediately, the ruler of the One Sith was here to at least attempt to resolve something before he returned to his mandatory hibernation. Until he could find out what had happened in that last mind-meld with Solo, Krayt feared that it might resurface at the most inconvenient time in the future.

And the ruler of the One Sith wanted to make sure that all immediate threats to his plans were eliminated before he could allow himself to go back into stasis.

"All right, My Lord, you have successfully transferred the last of Solo's memories into the clone," Darth Wyyrlok had said to him, "but now you must return to stasis."

Krayt had been carried out of the cloning chamber by Wyyrlok and the cloaked Sith on his other shoulder. But before he would allow himself to be taken to his stasis chamber, he dug his heels against the floor, stopping all three of them in his tracks abruptly as he had after that first mind-meld with Solo, and said, "No. Bring me to my bedchamber. I will call on you when I am to be ready for stasis."

"But, My Lord-"

"Silence, Wyyrlok! I will not be in any danger of dying, but you will be if you will not do what I ask!"

"Very well, My Lord," Wyyrlok replied sheepishly before proceeding to comply with his Master's demand alongside the other Sith holding Krayt up. "But what about Solo? What are we to do with him?"

"Find him, of course, and bring him back here alive. But if he is not brought back within the next year, I want him dead.

"At this point," Krayt continued, "I believe that we may have enough of Solo to complete the clone and fill in the rest of his memories with what we can from our own abilities. I had hoped to get everything from his mind to create as accurate of a clone as possible, but if he is not found before the Killiks begin their inevitable war with the Chiss, we will have to make do."

"Yes, My Lord," Wyyrlok replied.

Now that Krayt had been safely returned to his bedchamber, he scoured through the depths of his own mind via his own form of meditation to search for what had made him scream in that interrogation room. One would think that it would not be so difficult for him to find something from his immediate memory, but it was not that Krayt had already forgotten what happened in that room; oh, no, it was all too clear. What he was trying to find out, however, was whether or not he could replicate the experience without mind-melding with Jacen Solo.

And he sought to replicate that experience in the pursuit of eliminating a grave threat to his plans.

As if in mockery of his attempts, a familiar feminine voice echoed through his mind; he had opened his eyes, and he was now standing in darkness. He looked around himself, with no sign pointing to the source of the laughter, before he finally laid eyes on the one who had made him scream back in that interrogation room.

Vergere.

"Oh, don't mind me," the dead Fosh said. "I'm just laughing at what Jacen called you. 'Big scary Sith Lord.' Not that funny on the surface, but it's a joke that gets funnier the more you think about it."

"I need you to show me again," Krayt demanded.

"Once wasn't enough for you?" Vergere asked, still taunting. "I thought leaving you to cry like a baby would have proven my point."

"You know that it was not like that," Krayt growled.

"Oh, stop your growling, it's getting repetitive, you trying to be intimidating and all," Vergere waved away.

"SHOW ME, YOU DISGUSTING BIRD!"

Vergere scoffed. "Well, if you're going to be like that... I'll be happy to show you again."

And once more, Krayt was plunged back into seeing an abominable terror, an ancient horror, one that needed to be destroyed not only for the plans of the One Sith, but for all of the galaxy.

He looked into the star-like eyes of the being that threatened all that lived.

Abeloth.

"Had enough?"

The image of the grotesque, ancient creature had fallen away to be replaced by Vergere speaking to him from beyond the grave.

"Yes," Krayt responded sincerely. "Now I know what I must do."

The ruler of the One Sith ripped himself out of the shadow realm from which he found Vergere and back into the physical plane. He pushed himself wearily from his meditation mat, stumbled to his door, opened it, and yelled out to nobody in particular, "I need to get back into stasis _now_!"


	5. Chapter 5

With several seconds of hesitation preceding his actions, Darth Wyyrlok finally reached into the collar of his robe and removed his only form of protection from the artifact in front of him. And when he did, he couldn't help but stumble away in pain as if struck in the chest by a Wookiee's fist.

The Force was now mute to him, and Wyyrlok looked at the thumbnail-sized chip that he held in between his right index finger and thumb. At this moment, all he wanted to do was return that chip to his neck, or at the very least destroy the Force Nullifier that rested on the table before him; but Wyyrlok was a loyal servant to Lord Krayt, and it was that loyalty, and that alone, that prevented him from committing either tempting act.

Right now, Wyyrlok stood in a chamber of one of Korriban's Sith Temple's topmost levels. This chamber had been built roughly two years prior for this one purpose: to act as a storage room for the artifact that the One Sith have taken to call the Force Nullifier.

During the Yuuzhan Vong War, the One Sith, taking advantage of the extragalactic aliens' invasion, operated much more freely in certain sectors of the galaxy that weren't of much interest to either the New Republic (or the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances as they eventually came to call themselves) or the Vong. On one of those excursions, a team of Sith discovered something very interesting deep in the caverns of the Sith Temple on Dromund Kaas: a talisman that radiated a Force-nullifying energy field for a range of ten meters around, not unlike the now-endangered ysalamiri of the Vong-conquered world of Myrkr.

When that team that discovered the mysterious talisman reported their findings directly to Darth Krayt, the ruler of the One Sith, in lieu of ordering the talisman's destruction given its obvious disadvantage to Force-users like them, demanded that they bring it back to Korriban intact. The team complied without question, and upon the arrival of the talisman that was given the name of the Force Nullifier by Lord Krayt himself, the ruler of the One Sith demanded for the start of three projects: the construction of this sparse room that Wyyrlok was now in, suppressor chips that would be able to counteract the Force Nullifier's effects, and a table-like amplifier that would allow the Nullifier's range to cover the entire Sith Temple.

Wyyrlok was naturally puzzled by these demands; why have something produce an effect that would rob access to the Force among every Sith in the Temple, and why have suppressor chips to counteract that effect when it would be much easier to not have the Force Nullifier at all?

When Wyyrlok had asked those questions to his Master one time, instead of responding with a grand declaration for his subordinate to be silent, Darth Krayt had merely looked at his Chagrian assistant with a feral grin. "I see little reason to _not_ share why I would have this done, Lord Wyyrlok. However, I do believe that it will be much more... _delicious_ if you were to wait for the surprise with the rest of the One Sith."

Wyyrlok had simply nodded in obeisance. "As you see fit, My Lord." And that was the end of the Chagrian's line of questioning on that matter.

It had only taken the One Sith's top science team two months to design and construct the anti-Force Nullifier suppressor chips for every member in the Temple. And as if in concert, one of the lesser science teams had completed their work on the amplifier for the Nullifier itself.

So, on the day that both the chips and the amplifier were ready for operation, Lord Krayt had gathered all of his followers who were present in the Temple with their anti-Nullifier chips in hand. He gave the order to the science team in the Nullifier's chamber via commlink to activate the amplifier.

The subsequent feeling of nothingness in place of the Force overwhelmed everyone there on that day, although Wyyrlok, whose experience of Force-loss then perfectly mirrored the experience he was having now, was unsure if Lord Krayt had suffered any ill effects from the event. If he had, only that droid TC-57 would know about it, as Wyyrlok had at least known that the mechanical being was the only one with Krayt in his bedchamber when the amplifier was activated. Neither the ruler of the One Sith nor that lowly protocol droid had ever divulged what had happened to Krayt to anyone else in their Order; nor did anyone in the One Sith, including Wyyrlok, ever dare to ask.

Of course, once everyone had their anti-Force Nullifier chips on their necks, every member of the One Sith who was present in the Temple on that day had reported, with unified relief, that they could feel the Force again. Lord Krayt was the last one to report that, indeed, both the Nullifier's amplifier and its suppressor chips had worked.

After that, Krayt had ordered that the amplifier be shut down and that everyone should place their anti-Nullifier chips in one of the Sith Temple's underground vaults. Once those two tasks were done, Krayt had ordered everyone present to never speak of this day again until he commands it that the amplifier and the chips could be used.

And on the day that Lord Krayt had personally brought the unconscious Jacen Solo to Korriban, one of the first things that the ruler of the One Sith demanded to everyone present, via commlink, was that the Force Nullifier's amplifier was to be activated. Minutes after that, Solo had been safely placed in the Temple's chamber for the Embrace of Pain, and all of the Sith present soon had their chips on their necks.

So, for several months, as Solo must have wallowed in the pain of not feeling the Force in conjunction with the physical agony brought about by the Embrace of Pain, the One Sith were free to feel and use the Force at their leisure with no worry of the Jedi in their captivity using that same energy field to escape their grasp.

That was until the day that Solo escaped; somehow, he had been able to use the Force while the Nullifier's amplifier was still active. And, obviously, that was a great concern to every One Sith in the Temple whom Solo hadn't killed during his escape.

Yet it was a concern that Wyyrlok did not voice until just before Lord Krayt was set to finally be returned to stasis; with all that had happened because of Solo's escape, it had slipped Wyyrlok's mind until the last minute.

"Shall I see if the Force Nullifier's amplifier had malfunctioned or somehow been destroyed, My Lord?" Wyyrlok had asked. "It may explain how Solo had escaped."

"If it will satisfy your curiosity, Wyyrlok," Krayt replied indifferently. "But, somehow, I do not believe that Solo's escape was due to any fault in the Force Nullifier or its amplifier."

That was the last thing that Lord Krayt had said to Wyyrlok before the former had returned to stasis.

After Wyyrlok had seen to it that his Master was hibernating peacefully again, the first thing that he did was to seek out any problems with the amplifier. He checked with the science team that oversaw it, and they reported that it was working fine; there was no evidence that it had ever had a malfunction since it was created. Wyyrlok had sensed no deception from them that might have been the result of their fear of failing the One Sith; their report was genuine, Wyyrlok concluded.

So the only other thing to determine was whether or not the Force Nullifier itself was not working. And by taking off the suppressor chip from his neck, Wyyrlok had determined that the talisman itself was still "functioning," if that was the proper word to describe what it was doing.

Wyyrlok allowed himself to be devoid of the Force for a full minute before he finally put the chip back on his neck. He then revelled in the Force flowing throughout his being once more, like a man who was only moments before drowning now gasping in lungfuls of air.

Now that Wyyrlok was satisfied that nothing was wrong with either the Force Nullifier or its amplifier, he was left with the same question that brought him here: how did Solo escape from their grasp with the Force at his side when it should have been mute to him?

And did his escape have anything to do with Lord Krayt's preoccupation before he finally allowed himself to return to stasis?

Once Wyyrlok was done revelling in the Force flowing through him, he called up one of the members of the science team overlooking the amplifier via his commlink. "You may now come up here and deactivate the amplifier," he ordered.

"Yes, sir," came the obedient reply.

Wyyrlok left the room, and minutes later, that same science team member contacted him on his commlink to let him know that the amplifier had been deactivated. The Chagrian acknowledged the member, then sent out a Temple-wide call letting all of the other One Sith members know that they could remove their chips and deposit them back in that vault below.

Once that was done, Wyyrlok went to one of the Sith Temple's HoloNet terminals and opened up a secure link with the agent whom he dispatched to find Jacen Solo.

"Report," Wyyrlok ordered tersely.

"Solo has not returned to either the Galactic Alliance capital of Denon nor has he run home for the Jedi Temple on Ossus, My Lord," the voice of the Sith agent Dician replied. "Unless he returned to either one of them incognito, I doubt that he is on either planet. He could have gone somewhere else, of course, but I will find out."

"Dig deeper," Wyyrlok demanded. "Make absolutely sure that Solo has not contacted anyone in either the Galactic Alliance or the Jedi Order about us."

"I will, My Lord."

"I will expect another report from you in twenty-four hours, is that understood?"

"Absolutely. Agent out."

At this point, Wyyrlok should be worried that Solo would have notified either the GA and/or the rest of the Jedi about his experiences with the One Sith for the past year.

But, through the Force, Darth Wyyrlok could detect no malignant stirrings that threatened to undo everything that Lord Krayt had sought to execute.

Except for one thing. One distant thing. But it was not from the Jedi...


	6. Chapter 6

When Jacen awakened, the first sensation that he felt was that there was something metal and uncomfortable all along his neck. He felt for it and found that there was some kind of metal brace there. He yanked both hands on it, only to receive a painful electric jolt that caused him to scream for a second and flinch his hands away from the device.

He then tried to access the Force...

And received an even more painful electric jolt that brought him to his back.

Jacen breathed in for a few moments before allowing himself to stand back up and finally see where he was.

_At least it's not a Sith Temple this time_, he thought ruefully. And at least he had been clothed with a pure white tunic and matching trousers, with brown sandals for footwear; it was better than just being in his underwear like he was with the Sith.

He found himself in what seemed to be a low-tech village that was located in the epicenter of a vast canyon; the canyon itself was surfaced by lush green grass, indicating to Jacen that he was in a very temperate environment that was probably in the middle of a spring season. The huts around him were made of some strong wooden material, but Jacen noticed something about them that wasn't typical of societies like this: their roofs weren't triangular-shaped, but rather, they were as rectangular as the small buildings upon which they topped.

Jacen understood that, in an environment like this, precipitation like rain and snow (when it came to winter, of course) would likely collapse these flat roofs. So why weren't these huts built for precipitation?

Maybe he could ask one of the locals for an answer to that question; and afterwards, hopefully, they could tell him what planet he was on. Jacen just hoped that they could speak Basic, if not some other alien language with which he was familiar.

He approached the nearest hut and knocked on the door. He received no response for several seconds. Jacen thought about trying to sense if there were any presences behind that door, but he remembered that that would only gain him another electric jolt that would bring him to his back again. So he decided to hold off on that—at least until he could find some other way of getting this damn thing off his neck and subsequently find some way off of whatever world he was on right now—and simply knocked again.

After the second knock, the door was swung open inside, and a mean-looking Trandoshan male, who also happened to have a neck-brace similar to Jacen's, hissed at him. Jacen also noticed that his lizard-like counterpart wore white clothes and brown sandals like him; however, the Trandoshan's attire was blackened at various points with dirt and grime.

"Mind what business you still have, human," the Trandoshan intoned, "before they come for us today."

Jacen was about to ask who "they" were before the lizard-like being slammed the door in his face. He looked at his surroundings again to see if anyone had now emerged from their respective huts and give him some answers when he noticed something approaching from the peak of one of the valley's sides.

It appeared to be a massive transport vehicle that gleamed a shiny chrome; to Jacen, who had been shown holos of Tatooine from his Uncle Luke, the vehicle looked like the sandcrawler of a group of Jawa junk traders, except this vehicle relied on some pretty powerful repulsorlifts instead of conventional wheels.

The sandcrawler-like vehicle was now sailing down toward the village at a brisk rate, and it stopped several meters away from the outermost hut on that side of the valley. Once the vehicle had halted and hovered in place, it was only then that Jacen noticed that people of various different species—including the Trandoshan whom he encountered moments before—had finally appeared around him.

Jacen saw on each face in the gathering that they were all miserable, and similarly collared as he and the Trandoshan; their clothing was also about as dirty, if not more or less so, than the Trandoshan's. Jacen looked back at the halted vehicle, which was only a little over a dozen meters away from him.

The side of the vehicle that was facing the village unfolded before the crowd, and stepping out from it was a tall female Chiss who was dressed in typical blue-black Ascendancy military attire. Two shorter, but more muscular, male Chiss who were dressed the same accompanied her from behind, each brandishing a carbine across their middles. However, Jacen saw that, on the tunic of each of their uniforms, there were two blood-red slashes spaced out from each other like eyes.

Like Chiss eyes.

The blue-skinned, red-eyed woman held up a remote in one hand and, in accented Basic, called out, "Line up!"

Everyone in the crowd proceeded to do so without hesitation, assuming positions as if this were routine.

Which was because it was routine, Jacen deduced with some horror.

Once the line had been formed, and almost everyone was in position, that left only one awkward factor in the arrangement: Jacen himself.

"You, human!" the Chiss woman declared, pointing at Jacen with the hand that wasn't holding the remote. "You are between that Gungun and that Twi'lek!"

When Jacen hesitated for a few seconds, dumbfounded by a terrifying realization, the Chiss raised the remote and pressed one of its slew of buttons.

Predictably, Jacen fell to his side as powerful electric jolts shocked his system, leaving him a convulsing heap on the dirt-filled ground.

The pain stopped after five seconds, and it was immediately followed by the Chiss woman yelling, "Now!"

Jacen held up a hand in acquiescence as he stood up carefully and assumed position behind the earlier indicated Gungun and Twi'lek.

Once that was done, the Chiss declared, "Time to go to work. And, remember, no talking amongst yourselves."

Before the procession started their short trek to the sandcrawler-like transport vehicle, a brief shimmer appeared in the space between the Chiss and the village inhabitants. Then the line began toward the vehicle.

As Jacen and the rest of the crowd were marched into the massive barge, the full horror of the situation had hit him.

He was enslaved.

...

And for nine long and grueling years, he was enslaved.

In that time, he never learned who his captors were; the idea that they were a legitimate part of the Chiss Ascendancy was something that Jacen concluded was ridiculous. While he may have been ignorant of their customs—his brief time on Csilla during the search for the living world of Zonama Sekot during the Yuuzhan Vong War not being enough to get a really good idea of their society—he somehow doubted that they condoned slavery. And he thought that, if not the Galactic Alliance, then the Jedi Order would have investigated the abductions of certain members of species that belonged to the jurisdiction of the GA and the rest of the known galaxy.

But then again, it was a big galaxy; Jacen shouldn't have been surprised if a number of missing persons were simply never found for reasons like this.

The duties that Jacen found himself performing varied from mining some kind of ore in the deep caverns of whatever the planet he was on—he came to call it Planet Hell for obvious reasons—to working in one of the many processing factories scattered across the globe. There was never a day when he didn't receive at least one electric jolt; he wouldn't even have to have done anything wrong, he would have just been shocked for no other apparent reason than the amusement of that vile Chiss woman whose name he never learned.

Nor could he even guess at what was being produced by his unwilling and unpaid labor. Early on in his slavery, he made the mistake of asking the Chiss woman as to what he and his fellow slaves were helping to make; he was then immediately sent to a dark room where he endured a gnashing, gnawing kind of pain that enveloped his whole body; it was certainly a new experience of agony for him. He wondered if this kind of pain was what certain animals at the lower end of a natural food chain suffered before they died in the clutches of the predator that ate them.

It was rare when he was later sent to that dark room throughout the years; and it was for no apparent reason either. It was as if the sadistic Chiss woman wanted to keep the gnashing, gnawing pain a special kind of agony just for Jacen; he had no idea if anyone else among his fellow slaves was ever subjected to similar torment.

At the end of each sixteen-hour work day, Jacen was brought back to the village in which he had first found himself with many of the other slaves. He had been assigned a hut after the end of his first day of work, and he would barely get a decent eight hours of sleep before the next shift; it all ran into what could be called a years-long day for Jacen, if that made any sense.

Jacen had long ago deduced that the village in which he lived had been protected by a force-field from the elements; this explained why the roofs of the huts were flat instead of triangular, since no rain or snow could get through the shield. It also explained the brief shimmer that appeared on that first day, and which had appeared at the start of every day afterwards; that was the shield being routinely activated and deactivated for the slaves to get to and from that damn barge.

But what Jacen could never find out was to how to get that damn shock-collar off. Even thinking about taking it off would give him electric shocks.

And so did thoughts about committing suicide.

Thus, for those nine long, Force-less years, he had given up hope, something that he never thought he would do since he returned to the Jedi and New Republic after his time with Vergere, and resigned himself to this life of servitude, hoping for the day he died.

But at the end of those years, something happened that Jacen would later wish had come so much sooner; and not just so that he could be spared the hardship of slavery.

One day, when he and his fellow slaves—several of whom were the latest replacements for those who had died from either natural causes, overwork, complications from their shock-collars' effects, etc.-were being lined up for their next shift, a blessed sight appeared in the sky overhead.

Organically-produced starfighters from Zonama Sekot soared down from the heavily-clouded sky, firing upon the shield that covered the village. It quickly shimmered out of existence while the vile Chiss woman and her two flunkies hurried back in their slave transport vehicle. However, before it had a chance to begin its travel up the valley, two of the Sekotan fighters pummeled it with volleys from their lava cannons that engulfed the vehicle in a large mushroom of fire.

And just like that, the shock-collars fell away from the necks of Jacen and all of the other slaves present in the village.

For several moments afterwards, the now-former slaves stood dumbfounded in place as they looked down at what had given them so much pain for so long (or for so short a time, as it was for the new "recruits"). Then they all erupted in cheer, embracing each other in the process, with Jacen being no exception as he even hugged the Trandoshan whom he met on his first day of slavery.

But then the cheer fell away from Jacen after he stopped hugging the Trandoshan, as he had suddenly felt a deep, profoundly grave weight settle throughout his very soul. He didn't know what it was, but he knew the source of the weight: the Force had returned to him.

And whatever vague notions the Force was trying to tell him, he knew that he had to find out right away by returning to the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi Order, just as he tried to do all those years before when he had escaped from the Sith.

While the unknown heaviness still lingered in his very being, Jacen was at least able to shunt some of it out as he started to gain an awareness of his environment outside of the cheering going on among the recently-freed slaves. It had started raining now, the first time any of the slaves had felt the sensation since they were captured, and several Sekotan fighters had landed around the village perimeter.

Accompanying the landed fighters were about a dozen shuttles that also appeared to be organically produced. Disembarking from each shuttle was a team of Ferroans who were dressed up in white uniforms; upon the approach of those teams, the cheering from the freed crowd died out as they eyed the new arrivals with suspicion. The only one in the crowd who didn't view them with that level of hostility was Jacen himself, given his own familiarity with the Ferroans about a decade and a half earlier.

Each team of Ferroans stopped in their tracks exactly where the transport vehicle had stopped every day for the past nine years for Jacen. Then the Ferroan at the center of his own group's gathering called out, "We are here to help you! We, the Ferroans of Zonama Sekot, have arrived to take you back to your homes and bring you away from the forced servitude from which each of you has been placed! If you will please come with us..."

"It's okay, everyone," Jacen said to the crowd. "We can trust them. I've met them before!"

"They look like Chiss!" someone in the freed crowd pointed out. "How can you be so sure to trust them?"

"They just freed us from those blasted shock-collars, you dolt!" the Trandoshan Jacen had embraced replied. "What more evidence do you need?"

"And how do we know we won't just be placed into other shock-collars?" a Gran had asked. "We'd be trading one line of slavery for another!"

After about an hour of what Jacen ultimately knew was a pointless debate between those in the freed crowd who were suspicious of the Ferroans and those who weren't, the latter crowd inevitably won the debate. And it wasn't long before they were all loaded onto the transport shuttles and taken up into the skies of Planet Hell.

In the shuttle that he was placed into, Jacen, who had a blanket around him and a cup of water in his hand courtesy of the Ferroans, had a seat by a viewport. Thus, he was able to see from his left side when they left Planet Hell's atmosphere; a number of Imperial-looking Star Destroyers and a couple of Interdictors lay in floating ruins in space. Debris from other metal ships, namely TIE fighters, also scattered the space around them; less common was the debris of Sekotan fighters, while active fighters from the living planet guarded the space around Planet Hell like systemwide sentries.

"Jacen Solo?" a male voice asked from Jacen's right side.

He looked up and to the right; a male Ferroan was holding out an organic Sekotan commlink to him.

"This is for you," the Ferroan said.

"Thank you," Jacen replied as he accepted the yellow-light blinking Sekotan comm in his free hand. The Ferroan then walked away elsewhere in the shuttle to attend some other duty.

He pressed a button on the comm and said, "Hello?"

"Jacen, is that really you?" a familiar feminine voice responded.

For a few seconds, Jacen struggled to remember who was on the other line. Then he recalled: "Danni? Danni Quee?"

"It is you!" Danni exclaimed with a simultaneously disbelieving tone. "I can feel your presence through the Force!"

"And I you," Jacen said. "You're on one of the shuttles in this system?"

"Yes, I'm helping out with the relief effort for the slaves," Danni confirmed. "I'll explain everything to you when we meet, but... after everything I'd heard after I took on this mission..."

"What are you trying to say, Danni?" Jacen asked.

"Jacen.. something happened in the past few years, something that happened in the Galactic Alliance. And the Jedi..."

"What happened?" Jacen asked. Did this have anything to do with the grave weight that he felt back when he was freed on Planet Hell?

"When we meet... I'll show you."


	7. Chapter 7

Five years before Jacen Solo was freed from slavery, the living world of Zonama Sekot existed peacefully in the habitable zone of a single yellow star in the Unknown Regions. With all of the other celestial bodies in this system being too close to the star or at least a few million kilometers outside of its habitable zone, Zonama had enjoyed its solitude as being the only body in the system capable of supporting life.

But one day, that peaceful existence came to an end when four Chiss Star Destroyers entered Zonama's secret system, with one of those Destroyers being pursued by all of the others. And in an indirect way, it had been Zonama's fault; its mass shadow, which had not been previously recorded in the Chiss Ascendancy's previous expedition to this unnamed system (which had occurred an unspecified number of decades before), had unknowingly pulled out all four Star Destroyers from hyperspace.

Fortunately for the three pursuing Destroyers, and unfortunately for the one that was being pursued, it had brought about an end to a weeks-long chase throughout the Unknown Regions. The chase's end result saw to the crew of the pursued Destroyer being arrested and detained in an orderly fashion between the other three capital ships before they were to be sent away to whatever prison colonies that the Ascendancy had in their territory.

Moreover, the slaves who were being transported aboard the pursued ship had been freed to return to their homes.

But in between the engines and weapons of the pursued Destroyer being either slagged to ruins and her crew being taken into custody, there was a certain complication that had to be addressed between the inhabitants of Zonama and the impromptu Chiss representatives.

A hailing frequency from Zonama was immediately broadcast to all four Star Destroyers (even though the pursued Destroyer's communications had already been jammed by her hunters; no one on that ship could respond even if they wanted to). The lead pursuing Star Destroyer's Admiral was the one who ultimately responded.

Aboard the bridge of the Chiss Star Destroyer _Integrit_y, a life-sized holographic representation of the Ferroan Magister of Zonama Sekot appeared before the Destroyer's Admiral. Through this Destroyer's viewport, a series of shuttles from each of the pursuing trio of capital ships were soaring for the disabled Destroyer to begin arrests for the criminals and rescues for the slaves aboard.

"I am Magister Jabitha Hal of Zonama Sekot," the elderly Ferroan introduced herself formally. "Please identify yourself and your purpose for being here."

"I am Admiral Jayp'eec'arloc of the Star Destroyer _Integrity_," the Admiral introduced himself just as formally. "But you may call me Admiral Peecar if you like.

"We were hunting down a rogue Destroyer of the Ascendancy that had been in use by a band of Chiss slavers who call themselves the Superior Chiss," Peecar elaborated. "We were unexpectedly pulled out of hyperspace by your world's mass shadow. If you fear that we pose any danger to your world, Magister Hal, I can assure you, that is not the case; we simply wish to take these criminals back to our society where they can be tried and sentenced for their heinous actions."

"I sense your sincerity through the Force, Admiral Peecar," Magister Hal replied evenly. "I also sense that no one among your Star Destroyer or the other two under your command have any hostile intentions toward Zonama Sekot. And I can even sense the darkness of many of the souls aboard the ship that you have just captured, so I can assure you, neither Sekot nor her people have any intention of interfering in your arrests.

"However, I also sense that there are a number of people who are in pain aboard the ship that you have pursued. And that some of them are Ferroans. You said that the people you were after are slavers, correct, Admiral?"

"Indeed, they are, Magister," Peecar replied with a note of disgust.

"I see," Hal said with a thoughtful tone. She didn't even need to be told by Peecar that the wounded souls aboard the pursued Destroyer belonged to enslaved people. "Then would you care for assistance in your quest of locating these 'Superior Chiss' from the people of Zonama Sekot? We would be happy to loan you some resources, such as ships and weapons."

"That is something that I must bring to my superiors back on Csilla, Magister Hal," Peecar said. He paused for a moment. "However, I do believe that they may see the advantage of having the help of Zonama Sekot on our side."

Hal smiled.

. . .

From his ready room, it only took a few minutes for Admiral Peecar to get the blessing of the leaders of the Chiss Ascendancy's Ruling Families, via holotransmission, to accept Zonama Sekot's help in tracking down and putting an end to the Superior Chiss. So, with that out of the way, Peecar reestablished contact with Magister Hal, who invited him down to the planet's surface so that he could more thoroughly explain who the Superior Chiss were in a more discrete surrounding.

With an escort of half a dozen armed bodyguards at his side, Peecar met Magister Hal and a blonde human woman in the village that they lived. Nobody else was outside; Peecar thought that the Magister must have told the rest of the village inhabitants to remain in their homes while she was meeting with him.

Was it to keep the inhabitants safe? Peecar wondered. Or was it to keep him and his guards safe? If it was appropriate, he would ask that question; hopefully, it would not interfere with any hope he had of gaining Sekot's cooperation in the hunt for the Superior Chiss.

"Admiral Peecar, a pleasure," Hal said, shaking his hand.

"Magister Hal, likewise," Peecar replied before politely ending the handshake.

"May I introduce you to my apprentice, Danni Quee," Hal said, indicating the human with a courteous wave of her hand.

"Admiral," Quee said, extending her own hand to Peecar.

"I'm familiar with you, Miss Quee," Peecar said. "I recall that your visit to Csilla with Luke Skywalker and his entourage when you were searching for this world was the 'talk of the town,' as it were, in the Chiss Ascendancy several years ago. I'm glad to see that your research has paid off."

"I am, too, Admiral," Danni replied with a smile.

"If you would please join us in my hut, Admiral?" Hal asked.

"Of course."

Once all nine of them were inside the Magister's hut, and the Magister herself, the Admiral, and Miss Quee were seated, it was Hal who said, "So tell us about these Superior Chiss, Admiral Peecar."

"They were formed not long after the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, Magister Hal," Peecar explained. "They are a splinter group of the Chiss species who, upon being exposed to what you would call the known galaxy because of the war, saw opportunities to exploit the various species who inhabited this larger part of the galaxy. You see, xenophobia is, unfortunately, a commonality among my people, one that I do not share, I assure you. And among those who were and are particularly xenophobic, who believe so resolutely in the idea of the Chiss being innately superior to all other sentient species, they believed that it was their right by natural selection to enslave these so-called lesser lifeforms for their own benefit.

"Thus, the group who would come to be known as the Superior Chiss took many resources from the Expansionary Defense Force, as a majority of their members once belonged to our military, and they began infringing on certain out-of-the-way sectors of Galactic Alliance-occupied space.

"They would not stay long in those sectors; they would only kidnap lone ships; traders, merchants, and general loners, as we've discovered from those that we freed from the clutches of the Superior Chiss. And, of course, even though they believed so strongly in the innate superiority of the Chiss, they still had no qualms against kidnapping members of their own species, as well as others who belonged to other species who lived out in what the Galactic Alliance call the Unknown Regions.

"Those who were captured were sent to do various laborious tasks on certain worlds that helped create resources, namely weapons and ships, that would help shore up the paramilitary power of the Superior Chiss."

"Loners, you say they kidnap?" Hal asked. "That would explain the presences of the Ferroans I sensed aboard the Star Destroyer that you captured; those very Ferroans were members of my people who decided to leave Zonama and explore other opportunities in the Unknown Regions."

Peecar nodded. "We did not pay as much special attention to the Superior Chiss when we having our problems with the Killik colonies only two to three years ago. However, with the Killiks out of our way, we have resumed our efforts against the Superior Chiss, and so, here we are."

"I'm surprised you never asked the Jedi Order for help against the Superior Chiss," Miss Quee interjected inquisitively.

"The Ruling Families wanted to have it remain an internal matter," Peecar explained. "And their hesitation with trusting the Jedi only increased after the end of the Swarm War; with so many Jedi who assisted the Killiks then, it was quite understandable why the Expansionary Defense Force did not want any help from Luke Skywalker's Order. No offense to you, Miss Quee."

"None taken," she replied, "especially since I haven't been a Jedi for two years anyway."

"You had quit the Order?" Peecar asked.

Quee only nodded in response.

"I see." He returned his attention to the Ferroan. "So, Magister Hal, with the leaders of the Ruling Families having approved of Zonama Sekot's involvement in tracking down and neutralizing the Superior Chiss, I can assume that you have not changed your mind in this matter?"

"Not a bit, Admiral," Hal replied with a smile.

Peecar mirrored that smile. "Then we have an accord." Then he and the Magister shook hands on the matter.

. . .

"I thought that you wished to remain here, Danni," Jabitha stated.

A few hours after the meeting with Admiral Peecar concluded, and after the Ferroans who were rescued from the Superior Chiss Star Destroyer in orbit of Zonama were returned to the planet, Danni expressed, to Jabitha, her desire to help in the efforts of the Chiss-Ferroan alliance in putting an end to the Superior Chiss.

"I did before," Danni said with uncertainty in her voice. She was seated where Peecar sat earlier so that she was facing Jabitha. "I quit being a Jedi so that I could stay here. But after I saw how the Ferroans who returned were..." Tears were forming in her eyes, and she sucked up a big gulp of air to try to calm herself down; she avoided eye contact with Jabitha during that brief moment.

Jabitha lay a reassuring hand on one of Danni's. "I know, Danni. I know. And Sekot knows it, too; she knows it all too well, in fact."

"Do you think I should go back out?" Danni asked, her eyes still moist; but this time, she was looking at Jabitha. "Back out into the galaxy? Does Sekot think so?"

"You must do what you think is right, Danni," Jabitha said.

"But what about-"

"You are a promising disciple when it comes to the possibility of becoming the next Magister of Zonama Sekot, Danni," Jabitha interrupted. "But you are not the only one, remember. If you back out now, for whatever reason, there is no shame in it. In fact, there would be honor in it for what you hope to do for the people who suffer under these 'Superior Chiss' as they call themselves.

"Of course, keep in mind, doing this does not necessarily forfeit your possibility of being the next Magister. Surely, you don't believe that these Superior Chiss can operate forever? You can return, Danni, and take your place as my replacement once I am gone; you are always welcome here whether you become Magister or not. And, moreover, it is not as if any of the Ferroans here who will support the Chiss Ascendancy face exile for their choice; after all, why would Sekot and I support such a choice if that were the case?"

"I understand all of that, Jabitha," Danni said. "But the thing is, I wonder if my decision will ultimately pull me back out into the galaxy and leave me with a desire to never return here."

"What makes you believe that, Danni?"

"I don't know," Danni answered honestly. "I just feel that it might."

"Does the Force tell you that?"

Danni shook her head. "I don't think so. It's just a feeling."

"Even so, if you feel compelled to never return, whether the Force wills it or if you will it, it will be your destiny regardless. But as long as you feel that it is the right decision, that is all that matters, and I will support you in whatever decision you make, Danni."

Danni smiled. "Thank you, Jabitha."

"Now," the Ferroan said, "I suppose you should be getting ready to leave the planet? There are quite a number of arrangements you have to go through, of course."


	8. Chapter 8

Following the rescue from what Jacen called Planet Hell, the Ferroan rescue fleet put the system behind them with a few hours of hyperspace travel. When they returned to normal space, they all found ports aboard a Chiss Ascendancy space station that was in this system, allowing the Ferroans and their rescued charges to disembark from their respective vessels. From there, the freed slaves were each assigned personal guest quarters. Those who required medical attention were first brought to the station's medbay while those who were more or less good to go, at least physically, were promptly escorted by their Ferroan saviors to their quarters; once those saviors accomplished that task, they went to the station's main meeting room for their debriefing.

After Jacen was brought to his own quarters, the first thing he did was discard the dirty slave clothes that he had to wear for close to a decade; he dropped them down his quarters' garbage chute and didn't spare it a second glance before heading straight for the refresher station. Within moments, he took the first decent shower that he had in well over a decade; the feeling of the running water and soap that he applied over himself made him feel as if the last ten years of pain and torture were just sloughing off of his soul as easily as the dirt and muck that was pouring off of his body.

Once he emerged, feeling cleaner than he ever had even before he was captured by the Sith, he dressed himself in the robe that was left on his quarters' bed, no doubt left there as a complimentary gift from his Ferroan rescuers. Then he went to the table that had a plate of fresh bread, a bowl of shiny fruits, a glass pitcher filled with cool water, and an empty tall glass cup.

It was the best meal that Jacen had in the past ten years.

In the midst of his devouring everything that was edible on the table, there was a knock from outside Jacen's quarters. He looked up from his meal and reached out through the Force to sense who was on the other side.

It was Danni Quee.

"May I come in, Jacen?" Danni asked from behind the closed door.

Jacen swallowed the mouthful of bread that had then been in his maw and he stood up. "Of course you can, Danni."

A negative beeping sound occurred three times in succession before Danni said, "Uh, Jacen..." There was the sound of an awkward chuckle before she continued with, "The door's locked, I can't come in. Not unless you want me to use the Force to unlock it."

"No need," Jacen said hurriedly. "I'll do it."

He then hurried for the door, unlocked it, and opened it up.

And standing there, uniformed like Jacen's Ferroan rescuers, and with neither her expression, body language, or Force-presence giving anything away about what she was feeling in this moment, was Danni Quee.

It had been nearly fifteen years since Jacen and Danni last saw each other on Zonama Sekot. After that last encounter, she departed from the Coruscant system to the Unknown Regions with the living planet while he went on his doomed sojourn seeking knowledge from Force sects other than the Jedi Order.

And now, here she was again, looking as beautiful as she had when they said their last goodbye to each other. Seeing her again like this, after all of the misery and torture that he had undergone for the past decade, was like he was being told by the Force itself, "Now you may rest, Jacen, for this is your salvation from all that has brought you pain."

"Hi," he said rather awkwardly.

"Hi," she returned. Her tone was just as reserved as her expression, body language, and Force-presence. "May I come in?"

Jacen nodded and waved her in.

"You, uh... you wanna sit down?" He indicated the sofa that was right next to his bed. "I can take the dining chair. Oh, speaking of which, you want something to eat? As hungry as I am, I don't think I can finish all that bread and fruit, so..."

"I'm fine, Jacen," Danni said. "But I can take the dining chair; you can have the sofa. You're gonna need all the comfort you can get after what I'm gonna tell you."

_Perhaps she isn't my salvation after all_, Jacen thought to himself.

He obliged her, making himself as comfortable as he could on the sofa, while Danni had moved the dining chair so that she could sit a meter from Jacen.

Danni then took out a datapad from within the folds of her uniform and asked, "So, Jacen, which do you wanna know first? About the Superior Chiss, the people we just saved you from and why we did it, or about what happened in the past few years in the known galaxy?"

Jacen had to actually think for a moment. Given how fresh the emotional and even physical wounds were (even though all of the latter kind had been decently healed up at this point), a big part of him wanted to know who his captors were.

But the grave weight that had settled upon his soul ever since that shock-collar fell from his neck defeated that curious part that wondered who these Superior Chiss were. That feeling implicitly told him that he had to know what happened in the known galaxy.

"What happened in the past few years, Danni?"

When Danni had finished showing Jacen, via her datapad, everything that had occurred among the Galactic Alliance, the Jedi Order, and everyone else who had been involved in what had been called the Second Galactic Civil War, Jacen was left a crying mess on the bed of his quarters.

"But I couldn't have done any of those things, Danni!" Jacen sobbed. His back had been turned to her when he cried that out. "I wasn't Darth Caedus! I'd never betray the Jedi Order! I'd never make the GA into a fascist government! I'd never... I'd never..."

For this, he had to look Danni directly in the eye; and from what he saw from her watering eyes, she saw that she was hurting, too.

"I'd never kill Aunt Mara, Danni. I wouldn't hurt little Ben. I wouldn't hurt Mom or Dad. I wouldn't hurt Tenel Ka, I would never hurt Uncle Luke, I'd never betray any of my friends, I... I... how could Jaina just kill the man she thought was her own brother?! Wh- I... I... I... HOW COULD ANY OF THIS HAPPEN?!"


	9. Chapter 9

In his Master's bedchamber, Darth Wyyrlok waited on bent knee with his head bowed. He only looked up as soon as Darth Krayt said, "Rise."

Wyyrlok obeyed to observe his Master once again restored to full power following his recent time in stasis.

"I have seen the HoloNet archives that have detailed this Second Galactic Civil War," Krayt said with a grin. "I am pleased with the results. If the Killik crisis of nearly a decade ago would serve as a prologue to the downfall of the Jedi Order, the events that have occurred under Darth Caedus's rule of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances will serve as the first chapter."

Krayt's grin straightened into full seriousness. "I assume that there have been no leaks of our plans, Lord Wyyrlok? While I have not seen so much as a rumor in the HoloNet archives to speculate that Darth Caedus, as he has called himself, was merely a clone of Jacen Solo instead of the real Jedi, I want to make sure that you yourself are absolutely certain that the galaxy at large believes that Caedus was indeed Solo?"

Wyyrlok nodded assuredly. "I would stake my life upon it, my Master."

"Would you now?" Krayt intoned.

Wyyrlok gulped nervously. "Indeed, I would," he replied nervously. "As a matter of fact, during the Second Galactic Civil War, we had received a Jedi guest."

"Oh?"

"Well, not exactly a Jedi proper. A Dark Jedi by the name of Alema Rar; she was part of the Killik nest of Gorog, the one that Lomi Plo-"

"Yes, yes, I know of Lomi Plo's rule of Gorog and of Alema Rar's assimilation into that nest," Krayt interrupted. "She had been greatly deformed because of events that transpired during the Killik crisis and she had died under a task force named after her. Jacen Solo's sister was a part of that task force, was she not?"

"She was, my Lord."

"So Rar had visited us, did she? How did she find out where we were and what became of that visit?" Krayt asked.

"She had discovered a datachip in Lumiya's secret asteroid base after Lumiya herself died; that datachip was courtesy of the One Sith, and the information within it led to our location."

Krayt sighed in irritation. "Lumiya was foolish to turn down our offer. Still, even acting alone with Vergere, she had served her usefulness to us nonetheless. Anyway, continue; why did Rar visit us?"

"My Lord, she demanded that we help Darth Caedus, or rather Jacen, as she thought, in his struggle against the forces who dared to oppose him," Wyyrlok explained.

"So, naturally, the offer was rejected?"

Wyyrlok hesitated in his response. "Well, not exactly."

Krayt's expression darkened. "Elaborate," he intoned.

"While we did nothing to aid Caedus directly and thus risk premature exposure to our Order," Wyyrlok was quick to say, "we did spend about three days with Rar training her in the ways of mastering control of the Sith Meditation Sphere of which she had been in possession. And we had given her a fake Holocrcon of Darth Vectivus as well, which we used to track her afterward so that we could attempt to obtain the Sphere."

"Sith Meditation Sphere?" Krayt asked, his curiosity overcoming whatever anger he might have felt toward Wyyrlok. "I was unaware that Rar had such a thing... You said _attempt_ to obtain the Sphere. Where is it now?"

"One of our agents, Captain Dician of the _Poison Moon_, reported that the Sphere was last seen on the Sith world of Ziost," Wyyrlok answered, "about two years ago, my Lord."

Krayt looked at him inquisitively. "You mean to tell me that this Meditation Sphere is not in our possession?"

"Captain Dician also reported that the Sphere refuses to serve the One Sith, my Master," Wyyrlok explained. "According to Dician, the Sphere believes us to be too cowardly to be served."

"Cowardly?" Krayt asked angrily. "Because we bide our time for our inevitable conquest of the galaxy? If that is how the Sphere views us, then so be it; we are in no need of its services anyway." He waved his hand emphatically as if to signal the end of the matter being discussed. "But back to the matter of Rar. Why did she not die by our hands during her visit here? Why was it thought to be prudent to train her in the ways of using the Meditation Sphere?"

Instead of gulping nervously, Wyyrlok sighed nervously. "She had us convinced that if we were to kill her, the Jedi would have been able to track her whereabouts and discover us here on Korriban. Thus, we sent her on her way with the knowledge of how to control the Sphere."

"Do you know if she was able to use it to help Caedus in his war against the forces who opposed him?"

"We estimate that she was able to aid him in his escape in one battle, not long after he set Kashyyyk ablaze," Wyyrlok said. "Aside from that, we rendered no further aid, direct or indirect, in Caedus's failed conquest of the galaxy."

"Not that it was meant to succeed anyway," Krayt remarked. "I assume that Rar was not told that Caedus was a clone of Jacen Solo?"

Wyyrlok shook his head. "We denied any involvement in the birth of Darth Caedus; we would not betray that secret even to someone we thought we would have killed immediately after, my Lord. We even added in the extra lie of Vergere appreciating your vision of the One Sith."

"Excellent," Krayt said; his mood had become much one that was satisfied again. "I would not even want a non-Force-sensitive from outside our Order to go to the grave with the knowledge of Caedus's true nature, Lord Wyyrlok, lest they have some means, impossible though it might seem, to communicate their knowledge to the living." He was only half-joking when he said that.

But then his mood darkened again. "Of course, whether or not Jacen Solo continues to be among the living is still a question that plagues this Order, does it not?"

"I regret to inform you, my Lord, that Solo was never found after he escaped our clutches," Wyyrlok said. "However, given that he never surfaced at any point before, during, or after Darth Caedus's reign over the Galactic Alliance, I feel that it is safe to say that his fate is no longer our concern."

Krayt scoffed. "I wish I had your confidence, Lord Wyyrlok," he replied snidely. "But, while I do not think that Solo's fate is a completely moot point, there is a dark danger in the galaxy that must be stopped at all costs. And I have come out of stasis to build and develop my power more actively to counter that threat."

"What threat would that be, my Lord?" Wyyrlok asked fearfully. "Surely, it cannot be the Jedi; they are too staunch in their faith in the light side of the Force to be a 'dark threat' to the galaxy."

"Indeed, that threat is not the Jedi, Lord Wyyrlok," Krayt confirmed. "But I fear that we might even have to risk exposure to counter the threat whose name I fear to speak."

Wyyrlok stared at his Master in askance.

"Oh, yes, Wyyrlok. I am that serious of stopping this threat? And its name?

"Abeloth."


	10. Chapter 10

Several hours after Jacen's crying ended with him finally passing out from exhaustion, he awakened with Danni still sitting in the dining chair, observing him.

"How are you feeling now?" Danni asked.

Jacen sat up and, in a numbed tone, answered, "Terrible."

Danni nodded. She then stood up, picked the dining chair up with her, and then carried it over to Jacen's right, where she set the chair down and resumed her seat. Jacen, meanwhile, shifted so that he was now sitting and facing Danni.

Danni gently placed a hand on Jacen's shoulder and asked, "What do you want to do now?"

His expression understandably downcast. "I should have told you as soon as you contacted me after I was freed. I feel so stupid."

"Told me what?" Danni asked.

"Before I was captured by the Superior Chiss," Jacen explained, "I'd been tortured for, I think, a year under an organization of Sith. I escaped, but before I could make it back to Galactic Alliance or Jedi space to tell anyone, or even put out a transmission explaining my whereabouts, I was, of course, enslaved.

"Now that I'm free, I have to finish what I set out to do all those years ago. I have to let the Jedi know about this Sith organization." He then removed Danni's hand from his shoulder before standing up.

But this time, Danni placed both hands on her shoulders to set him back down to the bed. "Now, wait a minute, Jacen, let's think this through first. Given everything I just showed you, and pardon me if this sounds the least bit insensitive, but I don't think it's gonna be so simple for you to just send a transmission or show up somewhere in Galactic Alliance or Jedi space to explain the presence of this Sith organization."

"Then you can be the one to relay the information," Jacen said evenly. It was as if the pain from what he just learned about the Second Galactic Civil War was already dissipating from his soul; Danni knew, as a matter of fact based on her perception of his presence through the Force, that that definitely wasn't the case.

Danni cocked her head. "Somebody in the Jedi Order might ask where I got my information from."

"Tell them that you don't wanna risk your source's identity," Jacen replied. "But the Jedi have to be on the hunt for this Sith organization as soon as possible, even before I can go public to the known galaxy again."

"And how do you think you should go about revealing yourself to the galaxy?" Danni asked. "How do you think anyone will accept you being here when whoever this Darth Caedus was had assumed your identity? Sure, he died; records of his death are readily available to the general public, but let's be real, it might not be so easy for the galaxy to just buy the story that Caedus was, say, a clone of you."

"Why would that be hard to believe?" Jacen asked. "It's not as if I'm the first person in the galaxy to ever be cloned. After all, there was an entire war waged before my mom and uncle were born that involved clones. Hell, my uncle even fought his own clone one time."

"Yes, but where's the evidence?" Danni asked.

Jacen looked at Danni in askance. "Wouldn't I be the evidence? If Caedus is dead and I'm alive, that means that he was a clone."

"Or you could be his clone," Danni suggested.

"You know that's not true, Danni."

"I know it's not, but again, without any hard evidence, people could think of any number of crazy things, like maybe you're the clone, or an imposter, or you're Darth Caedus who's been risen from the dead; with how mystical the Jedi are, people can think that, and that's gonna make things a little complicated in the law of the Galactic Alliance. Your identity as Jacen Solo, and not Caedus, has to be a hundred percent validated, at least through official channels, if not the court of public opinion.

"And speaking of public opinion, you're gonna have to find a way to clear your name, and I don't just mean making sure that you've officially proven that you were never Caedus and that you never committed any of his crimes."

"What are you, my talent agent now?" Jacen asked sardonically. "You make it sound like you have a plan to get my career as a holostar back on track after making some bad vids. I thought your speciality was in hard science, not social science."

"Well, I've picked up a few things on Zonama Sekot that went beyond studying its ecology and environmental structures," Danni said.

"Yeah, like what?"

Danni pursed her lips before shaking her head. "Doesn't matter right now. What does matter is how we proceed from here. I agree that the Jedi should be made well aware of this Sith organization ASAP. By the way, do you think they could have been responsible for Caedus?"

"What?" Jacen asked.

"If we're to assume that Caedus was a clone of you, do you think it's possible that this Sith organization was responsible for bringing him to life in the first place by harvesting your DNA?" Danni elaborated.

"I... I guess it's possible," Jacen surmised. "It would explain why they kept me in captivity and tortured me without asking me any questions. But why keep me alive for so long after harvesting my DNA for the clone? Surely, the reason would go beyond mere sadism, of torturing a Jedi for the hell of..."

He trailed off as the reason hit him. "By the Force... that's why he was taking my memories!"

"Who was taking your memories?" Danni asked.

"The Master of the Sith organization," Jacen said. "I don't know his name, but while I was in captivity, he had been melding with my mind to take memories from me. Not that I lost them, but it was as if he had been... copying them."

Danni's expression was drawn in horror. "If Caedus was a clone of you... then this Sith Master must have been transferring the memories he copied from you into this clone."

"And no one among even my family would have known the difference," Jacen concluded with the same horror was on Danni's face.

"Do you know where these Sith are, Jacen?" Danni asked hurriedly. "If the Jedi are to be notified of them, they have to know where they are!"

Jacen opened his mouth as if to answer, only to promptly to shut it again in frustration. "I had the system coordinates... in the navicomp of my ship, the _Solo Quest_."

Danni hesitated before she asked, "Where is it now?"

Jacen drew in a breath through his nose before he replied with, "I guess that's a question we have to ask the Superior Chiss, isn't it?" The frustration was evident in his tone.


	11. Chapter 11

In the sparring room of Korriban's Sith Temple, Darth Krayt trained against exactly one dozen members of the One Sith. While their lightsabers were all set to stun, the electrical shocks that any one of them, including Krayt himself, would receive would be powerful enough to temporarily cripple the victim for a few hours or so in a non-vital extremity, such as an arm or a leg. Should a stun-set Sith lightsaber strike a victim anywhere that would be fatal if they were set on their typically lethal capacity, such as the head, chest, or back, the victim would have to receive immediate medical attention lest they die from the literal shock of the experience.

Thus, the object of each of Krayt's subordinates, who happened to be his opponents for this event, was to strike their Master in one of those potentially fatal areas.

It was certainly an interesting command from Krayt, but none of them questioned their Master; they did as he bid. And Krayt had already informed Darth Wyyrlok in advance that the reason that he would be giving this order was because, if he, Krayt, were to be struck at any point where he would have to receive immediate medical attention, then he still had a long way to gather his power in his inevitable battle with the abominable entity known as Abeloth.

So, if Krayt was able to best his opponents, it would mean one of two things: either he would be ready for Abeloth, or his subordinates were getting sloppy in their lightsaber techniques. This assessment could only be made by Krayt himself.

The training session began with all twelve of Krayt's opponents forming a perfect circle around him. And with all twelve red lightsabers blazing, the Sith Master's dozen enemies/subordinates charged in at him.

Krayt selected one of his foes, a female red-skinned Twi'lek, and used a Force-push to send her flying a few meters back. He then rolled out of the circle and spun around 180 degrees to slash at the back of a male Gran, sending him down for the count.

Krayt turned back to the downed Twi'lek, who had already pushed herself back up and was rushing in for her Master. But Krayt performed a flip off to his right and came face-to-face with a male Devaronian and a female Trandoshan. His lightsaber discharged briefly against each of their blades before he managed to strike the Trandoshan on the right shoulder, downing her. A second later, Krayt got underneath the defenses of the Devaronian and slashed across his midsection, sending him down.

When Krayt spun around again, not only did he encounter the Twi'lek again, but she was also aided by two males, one a dark-skinned human and the other a Bith. Krayt backpedaled from the trio for a few steps, exchanging clashes with all of them with expert lightsaber techniques, before he leaped up to avoid an attack from behind.

Krayt landed on his feet behind the attacker, a female Muun, whom he struck across the head. Not even a second after she went down, Krayt advanced on the trio, where he downed the Bith with a strike at the leg. The human went down five seconds later with a strike to the neck. The Twi'lek then disengaged from Krayt and performed three backflips away.

Krayt realized that he was now halfway through his opponents, and so far, the Twi'lek had managed not to be downed by him.

_Impressive_, he couldn't help but think.

But he didn't have enough time to muse on that notion any further before he saw two more enemies, one coming from his left and right, rushing in at him. Krayt took the one on the left first, a female Aqualish, with whom he traded three clashes before ducking and sweeping his legs to knock her to her back. Krayt then leaped up to avoid a slash from the enemy behind him, a male Shistavenen, and while in midair, he managed to strike him in the back of his neck and downed him.

When Krayt landed, he swiped down at the Aqualish, but she rolled out of the way and went to engage her Master with the help of a male Zabrak and a brown-furred female Wookiee. Krayt defeated the Wookiee almost immediately, within two seconds, by landing a blow to the side of her head before just as promptly defeating the Zabrak in the same way.

Five seconds later, Krayt spun around to find himself engaging both the Aqualish and a male Gotal. Then, right behind him, the red-skinned Twi'lek charged.

And once he engaged all three enemies, he soon managed to maneuver himself through all of their defenses at once and performed a single swipe across all of their chests.

Once they were down, the training session was over.

Not long after all of the defeated One Sith members were taken away to their Temple's medbay, Lord Wyyrlok met with Krayt in the center of the sparring room and waited for his Master to speak.

"They all need much more training, obviously," Krayt said offhanded. "I still do not feel as powerful as I should be. Indeed, that was too easy."

"Of course, my Lord," Wyyrlok replied apologetically. "I shall strive to make the training regiments more demanding."

"Good," Krayt said evenly. "But I must say, that Twi'lek... her name is Cay'lun, correct?"

"It is indeed, my Lord."

"Keep an eye on her," Krayt said. "And I mean that in a good way; she shows promise of being an integral part of the One Sith. The fact that she managed to last that long engaging me is something to consider."

"Yes, my Lord."

"That is all, Lord Wyyrlok. I shall return to my quarters now."

"Very good, my Lord."

Minutes later, after Krayt had dried himself from his shower and clothed himself back in his quarters, he stopped in his tracks when he sensed a presence in his bedchamber. He turned in that direction and rushed in to stop abruptly again; his jaw dropped when he saw the presence squatting on his bed.

"If your disciples can be defeated that easily when you are still more or less fresh out of stasis," Vergere said, "maybe you really do have to make those training regiments more strict."

Without replying, Krayt raised a hand and unleashed a torrent of Force-lightning at the Fosh.

But the torrent passed through her harmlessly to strike the wall behind her, creating a meter-wide hole there.

Vergere looked briefly back at the hole and asked, "I bet the best thing about being the head of your Order is that no one will question you as to why you created that hole, huh?"

"Why are you here, you disgusting bird?" Krayt growled.

"In two words? To gloat."

"Which you have just done. Now leave."

"Oh, I didn't come here to gloat about how pitifully your so-called disciples were defeated," Vergere elaborated. "I came here to give voice to a regret that you've refused to bring up even to yourself."

Krayt said nothing.

"The silent treatment won't work, you know," Vergere said after a moment. "I may not know everything about the Force, nor do I know everything about everything else, but I can tell you that I have a great deal of knowledge of both of those things. And that includes what you are thinking but try to put to the back of your mind."

"Get to the point."

"You regret not using direct mnemotherapy on Jacen," Vergere finally said. "You regret not leaving him an empty shell of a sentient being with virtually no memories."

Krayt crossed his arms but still said nothing; at this point, he knew that no matter what he said, Vergere would just go on with what she came here to say.

"It would've been simpler, wouldn't it?" Vergere retorted. "That way, you wouldn't have to worry about Jacen still being out there while preparing yourself for Abeloth, huh?"

Again, Krayt waited stoically with arms crossed for Vergere to go on.

"What was the reasoning you provided to that young man who taught you mnemotherapy, the one from Nam Chorios?" Vergere asked. "What was his name?" She snapped her fingers as if struggling to remember. "Ah, yes, Garis Boric. A former Theran Listener, one practiced in taking away memories, namely painful, traumatizing ones, and being able to store them in oneself or elsewhere... or just let them dissipate. He taught you the technique that allowed you to take Jacen's memories from him, only you made a special request from young Garis, didn't you?"

"You know what it was as well as I do," Krayt said, his patience waning.

Vergere giggled. "Of course I do, but I still prefer the buildup. You told Garis that while you wanted to have the ability to take one's memories from them, you wanted to, at the same time, leave those memories intact from the 'source's' mind, as if you were merely copying the memories instead of actually taking them. A tricky procedure, he told you, but one that might be doable.

"But what was your reasoning for that procedure, Darth Krayt? Again, why not leave Jacen Solo nothing more than a man with total amnesia by the time you were done with him? Hmm?"

After a moment, when it was apparent that Vergere was actually waiting for a response from him this time, Krayt asked, "Why should I tell you?"

"I just want to hear it from your own lips," Vergere replied flippantly.

Another moment passed. "You won't leave until I comply, will you?"

Vergere titled her head in amusement. "Must be frustrating to do something for someone whom you can't kill, torture, or order around, isn't it?"

Krayt growled. "Because... I was... concerned..." He trailed off again as he felt that last word almost literally grate against his dark soul. "...that I might lose the memories forever in a moment of physical weakness; by leaving Solo's memories intact, I could go back and redo the mind-meld."

"Obviously, you already know your own limits, what with your periodic retreats into stasis," Vergere said dryly. "But what interests me is why you didn't just let young Garis handle Jacen's memories. He could have easily robbed Jacen's memories and placed them in his clone with significantly less risk than you."

Krayt's hands tingled with electricity for a moment. Then he said, "Because I needed to do it."

"Because you needed to do it?" Vergere echoed in a mocking tone. "I'm sorry, what exactly does that mean?" Her still-mocking tone made it evident that she already knew.

Krayt merely sighed in defeat. "For something as important as my plans for Solo's clone, I could trust no one else, not even the person who had the most experience with taking away memories like Garis Boric."

"Well, that doesn't sound very practical," Vergere said. "That almost sounds as if..." She made a face as if she were shocked by the revelation that occurred in her mind. "That you couldn't let anyone else be in control of something so crucial to your plans even when it made more sense to cede control; you just had to do it yourself because you needed to be absolutely certain that everything went as you planned. You just couldn't let young Garis do a job that was so important and which he was vastly more qualified for; that would hurt your ego and take away one of the few things that you can take comfort in: certainty. And not only that, but the control that you gain in your certainty.

"Your desire to control, Darth Krayt, is as much of a weakness as your certainty in the existence in the dark side of the Force."

"Are you done?" Krayt asked, his blood boiling now.

"For now," Vergere said. Then she giggled as she faded away into nothingness; her laugh echoed in the Force for a moments afterwards.

The only question from the encounter that Krayt had in his mind, which he doubted that Vergere would have answered, was why she decided to point out that flaw in his plan.

He wondered if he would find out the reason soon.


	12. Chapter 12

"You ready?" Danni asked.

Jacen nodded; he was now dressed in much more respectable civilian clothing than a robe courtesy of the Chiss services aboard this station.

Danni turned back to the HoloNet terminal and opened a channel that hailed the Jedi Temple on Ossus. Given that she and Jacen were still aboard the Chiss station that was very much within the Unknown Regions, it took a couple of minutes for a reply to come through.

During that brief time, though, Jacen said, "I'm not looking forward to seeing my uncle after all he's been through. With Aunt Mara gone..."

"As you said, while you may be seeing him, he won't be seeing you, Jacen," Danni pointed out. "We both agreed that now is not the right time."

"I know," Jacen acknowledged. "Still... I'm not looking forward to it."

Soon, Danni received a reply from a receptionist from Ossus's Jedi Temple. When Danni explained who she was and that it was urgent that she speak with Grand Master Luke Skywalker about a matter pertaining to the Sith, the receptionist put her on hold to patch the Grand Master through.

"Grand Master?" Jacen asked while he and Danni waited again.

"That's the title your uncle gave himself during the Swarm War," Danni explained. "That was the conflict before the Second Galactic Civil War, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about that one. But, basically, that conflict had split the Jedi Order in a way that prompted your uncle to take on full accountability for the Order and told everyone who couldn't prioritize being a Jedi above all else to quit. That's why I'm no longer a Jedi, Jacen."

Jacen shook his head in disappointment. "Sounds a little..."

"Tyrannical?" Danni suggested mildly.

"I'd say that's a little too strong a word, but for lack of anything better..."

Before Jacen could finish that sentence, a meter-long holographic representation of Luke Skywalker appeared before Danni.

Jacen, standing well off to Danni's right, remained out of sight from his uncle. But from his point of view, and even with some static interference, Jacen could see how much more haggard Luke Skywalker had become in the fourteen or so years that had passed since he had last seen him following the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War.

And it wasn't just that he got older; even through the composure, Jacen could see how much pain his uncle carried with him following the death of his wife and Jacen's aunt, Mara Jade Skywalker.

"Danni Quee," Luke said curtly. "I apologize if we don't go through any pleasantries, but the receptionist told me that you had information about Sith?"

"No apologies necessary, Master Skywalker," Danni said just as curtly. "I have a source who wishes to remain anonymous who's informed me of the existence of a Sith organization. Unfortunately, they have told me that upon their escape from this planet occupied by Sith, they had no idea what the name of the planet was and the coordinates that could lead back to it are, as of this moment, unavailable. The best that my source can offer is that this planet had a Sith Temple on it."

"Why are these coordinates not currently available, Danni?" Luke asked.

"My source's ship was taken from them by a group of slavers," Danni answered. "The source had no opportunity to transmit the Sith planet's coordinates elsewhere before they were captured. Both my source and I have agreed that until we can get their ship back, or if we can get it back, the Jedi Order should at least be made aware of this Sith organization's existence."

"There are many planets in the galaxy that have had Sith strongholds and Temples throughout galactic history, Danni," Luke stated. "If I were to send out a Jedi task force to look through every known planet that has ever had a Sith Temple, it might be years before they discovered anything, and that's assuming that your source is reliable. Do you trust them?"

Danni nodded. "I do."

"I have your word on that," Luke said evenly. "I'll see what I can do. But tell me, before I sign off, why does your source wish to remain anonymous with this information? I'd very much like to meet them, to see if they know anything else."

Danni pursed her lips, but she didn't even look in Jacen's direction before replying with, "My source fears that if their identity is revealed, then this Sith organization will be after them and know where to look. And, besides, until we can get their ship back and give you more useful information, namely the Sith planet's coordinates, my source and I both agree that it would be wise for their identity to remain known only to them and myself."

"I see," Luke replied evenly again. "Thank you for your information. May the Force be with you."

"And with you, Master Skywalker."

Once the transmission was terminated, Jacen let out a breath that he didn't know that he'd been holding in.

"Do you think he knew you were here the whole time we were speaking?" Danni asked, finally looking at Jacen. "I'd think that even opening up a transmission out here in the Unknown Regions to Ossus..."

He shook his head. "I don't think so, but I don't think it was because of the physical distance. Considering what he's been through, if he even had an inkling that I was still alive, I don't think he'd been that composed."

Danni's expression became much more inquisitive. "If you believe that it wasn't because of the physical distance between this space station and Ossus, then how did you know that your uncle wouldn't have sensed you, Jacen?"

"Because I can't even feel my own twin sister, Jaina, from out here," Jacen said. "Not one damn bit. And we could still feel each other even while you, me, Uncle Luke, Aunt Mara, and the others were looking for Zonama Sekot during the Yuuzhan Vong War, and Jaina was off fighting the war with my parents and Tahiri Veila. If I can't sense Jaina's presence, no one else in my family would either."

"Do you think it has anything to do with the Second Galactic Civil War?" Danni asked.

Jacen sighed. "I think it might. For all intents and purposes, Darth Caedus was me; he had my memories, my DNA, at least some of my personality. All corrupted by the Sith, of course, but as far as my friends and family were concerned, that man had gone through the exact same experiences I had throughout my childhood and teenage years. Hence, when he died, and Jaina and everyone else in my family who was Force-sensitive sensed that death, it must have done something to render me invisible to their senses... as if I became a Force-less Yuuzhan Vong."

"But I can sense you, I knew you," Danni observed. "And you certainly have the Force and I can detect that you're not a Yuuzhan Vong. At best, even those who are making a genuine effort to reconnect to the Force back on Zonama Sekot still struggle to even get so much as a sliver of control; and their presences are too faint even for Magister Jabitha to detect."

"You may have known me during the war, Danni," Jacen said, "but that was a long time ago. You and I never attained a level of connection through the Force that I had with any of my family, or even the friends I grew up with at the Yavin 4 Academy. And let's not forget, while the Second Galactic Civil War was raging, you were out here removed from that violence."

"But even from out here, I sensed all the lives that were lost on a regular basis," Danni pointed out evenly.

"You were never in the thick of it, though," Jacen said. "The impact of the violence wasn't as strong as it would have been for you had you been there."

Danni raised an eyebrow in consternation. "Didn't you say that physical distance wasn't a factor when it came to the Force?"

"Only in certain things, Danni," Jacen replied. "Like the connection that I had to Jaina, for instance. However, when it comes to other things, like beings I never knew, you and I may not be able to sense anything. Let's say, for instance, if we were back in the known galaxy and a village full of people on a planet in the Unknown Regions were suddenly massacred, I might not even be able to feel it, not only because I never had any personal ties to that village in the first place, but because it's too far enough away for me to feel. Now, if an atrocity like a planet blowing up, like Carida for example, were to occur, that would reverberate through the Force, and physical distance becomes much less of a factor because of what happened. You see where I'm going with this?"

"I think I do. So what you're trying to say is that while you may very well be a void to those who were closest to you because of the effects of Darth Caedus's death, just as those closest to you are now voids in your Force-perception, others who weren't as close to you, like me, can still sense you, and you can sense us."

Jacen nodded. "Exactly."

"Which means it might be that much harder to convince the galaxy, especially those who were closest to you, that you are who you say you are," Danni concluded.

"And that makes it all the more pertinent that we find my ship, the _Solo Quest_, so we can get the info on her navicomp that can lead us and the Jedi back to the Sith planet," Jacen added. "Our best chance at undoing at least some of the damage that Caedus brought about through the Force with his death might come from the Sith."

"What do you hope to do if you do confront them again, Jacen?"

"If the Jedi Order gets involved," Jacen said, "we might not have to think too hard about that question. Now let's find my ship."

Danni nodded and turned back to the terminal. With her access as an official member in the Chiss-Ferroan alliance against the Superior Chiss, she was able to search some Chiss and Ferroan records as to where any ship registered as the _Solo Quest_ might be.

"It might be possible that the _Solo Quest_ would have been captured in a Ferroan-Chiss attack against the Superior Chiss, or maybe just an Ascendancy attack, before the Ferroans got involved," Danni explained to Jacen as she searched through the records.

As the minutes ticked by with Danni going through the records, Jacen leaned along the wall beside her, thinking. He wondered, and dreaded, the interactions he'd have to have when he ultimately returned to the galaxy to meet with his friends and family.

Or at least those who were his friends and family; Caedus probably made sure that his parents, sister, uncle, and cousin had all disowned Jacen as part of their family even before Jaina killed the clone.

At the end of those minutes, Danni's face drew into a frown. Jacen ceased his musings when he saw her expression.

"What is it, did you find it?" he asked, standing up straight again.

"I did," Danni replied as she looked back at him. "Or the records of what's left of the _Quest_."

Jacen turned to look at the records that Danni had found.

About a few years ago, the pilot of the ship that had the _Quest_'s registry numbers had committed a suicide run on a Chiss Ascendancy Star Destroyer when a trio of the latter had found a Superior Chiss outpost; the run had done nothing to that Destroyer's shields. As the Ascendancy forces who were present for the event later found out from their Superior Chiss captives' records, the pilot was a zealot of the Superior Chiss's cause whose personality saw to it that he would rather die than allow himself to be captured by "inferior" Chiss.

Which meant that, if the _Quest_'s navicomp info hadn't been purged when the Superior Chiss took hold of it, it would have been destroyed when that fanatical pilot took the ship with him to the grave.

Jacen's stomach sank as he read the information presented to him. Then he grit his teeth as his hands formed into fists.

"Jacen, I'm... I'm so sorry," Danni said as she put a hand on his shoulder.

Jacen abruptly shrugged off her touch and looked at her with barely contained anger. But from one look of concern from her eyes, Jacen sighed, allowing himself to gradually purge himself of the anger that had built up from within.

"At least the Jedi know of the Sith organization," he reasoned mildly. "They may not know where to begin looking any more than we do, and it's gonna take them, and me, longer than it would have if we had those coordinates. But at least we haven't hit a total dead end... yet."

Danni nodded. "I'll go send a transmission to Jabitha, tell her that I'll be taking a leave of absence to help you in your search for these Sith. I'm sure she and the Ferroans I've been working with will understand. And I don't think the Chiss will mind if I'm gone anyway, but I'll run it by them just as a formality."

"I said it'll take _me_ longer to find the Sith without the navicomp coordinates, not _us_," Jacen said, stopping her from turning away. "You don't have to help me anymore, Danni. I can take it from here by myself."

"Jacen, I can't leave you alone again," Danni insisted sternly. "You're gonna need all the help you can with this. And I'm not just talking about the search for the Sith."

Jacen hesitated before he responded. "You'll be there by my side? When I have to come before my friends and family?"

"You're gonna need the Jedi Order's help anyway in the search for the Sith, and we both know that I can't keep you as an anonymous source forever," Danni reasoned. "The only thing we really have to worry about, aside from the Sith, of course, is how we're going to clear your name. And figure out how we can prove even to your friends and family that you are, indeed, the real Jacen Solo."

"Well, then, Danni," Jacen said as he crossed his arms across his chest, "how do you suggest we do that? You said we had to clear my name in the galaxy."

"I know, but I haven't figured that part out yet," Danni said. "Just give me some time-"

"Honestly, I think we'd be wasting it," Jacen interrupted. "I think we have to pull off the proverbial bacta patch and just get it over with. I see no way this is going to be painless; and with this Sith threat in the background, the more time we waste, the more time they have to rise in power."

Danni cocked her head and mirrored Jacen's arms-crossed posture. "And what do you suggest we do? Just send out a galaxywide transmission and say, 'Hello, galaxy, I'm Jacen Solo. The guy who ran the Galactic Alliance in the last war was my clone. Please believe me without further evidence.'"

"Not quite," Jacen said, ignoring Danni's implicit criticism. "I was actually thinking of something more... brazen."

"Oh?"

"I want you to take me to Ossus, Danni."

Danni's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious," she said after a long moment passed.

"I'm dead serious. Now are you going to help me or not?"

"And if I don't?" Danni intoned.

Jacen had no response. Nothing in his mind that came as a potential response sounded non-threatening; and he certainly didn't want to mirror any actions his clone had made as Darth Caedus. Saying something like, "Then get out of my way," would probably get the wrong response from Danni.

But he knew that he had to do this, whether Danni would help him or not.

However, it was Danni who capitulated with a sigh. "I don't wanna keep you against your will, especially after everything you've been through, both from these Sith and from the Superior Chiss. As your friend, I just wanna make sure you don't make any rash choices in how you go about revealing yourself to the galaxy, Jacen."

He smiled and placed a hand on Danni's shoulder. "Even though my name's been thoroughly run into the ground by Caedus, and even though the Jedi Order has probably considered me _persona non-grata_ at this point, the fact remains is that I'm still a Jedi. And part of being a Jedi is having to make rash choices, Danni."

Danni mirrored his smile. "Are you sure you're not mixing up your dad's smuggler side for your mom's Jedi side?"

"Even if I knew that I was," Jacen said, "it wouldn't make a damn difference."

Danni chuckled. "Then let's go through this rash decision." She placed her hand on the one that Jacen still had on her shoulder. "Together."

Jacen nodded. "Together."


	13. Chapter 13

Danni's request to her immediate superior, Chiss Colonel Hent'rac'hepla (or Trache, for short), for a leave of absence was accepted. However, her request to take a vessel from either the Ascendancy or even from the Ferroans was denied.

"Wait, why not?" Jacen was the one to ask. He and Danni met Trache in the Chiss station's meeting room, where both humans sat across the room's table from the colonel.

"There is no way that I can approve of you taking a ship from either the Ascendancy or even from our Ferroan allies, Mr. Solo and Miss Quee," Trache intoned. "At least not from outside what you call the Unknown Regions. In spite of our success against the Superior Chiss thus far, the Ruling Families have declared it necessary to have every vessel available both from our own military and from the Ferroans to be dispatched to deal with these fanatics."

"What about any of the ships we've captured from the Superior Chiss so far?" Danni asked. "Surely, you'd be willing to lend Jacen and me that much."

Trache shook his head regretfully. "I'm afraid I can't do that, either. You see, all of the ships that we've captured from the Superior Chiss have either been reclaimed by their owners, inherited by those with proven blood relations to the owners who have either died or gone missing, or are otherwise currently tied up in certain legal ventures wherein claim wars are being waged."

"Well, is there anything you can do, Colonel?" Jacen asked, his patience obviously waning.

Trache sighed. "The best that I can do is allow a Ferroan shuttle to escort you back to Zonama Sekot; in case of an emergency, the shuttle will still be in close enough proximity to Ascendancy space to help us out. Once you have returned to Zonama, you can get a ship there to take you back to the wider galaxy."

"But the seed-partner process will-"

Jacen was interrupted from saying anything more by Danni elbowing him in the ribs. She then looked back at Trache and nodded politely. "Thank you, Colonel. We appreciate your help."

The colonel returned the nod. "I'll see to it that one of the Ferroan ensigns will accompany you back to Zonama so they can bring the shuttle back to us. Dismissed."

An hour later, Jacen and Danni boarded a Sekotan shuttle piloted by a female Ferroan ensign named Ichrat who brought them away from the Chiss station. From there, they launched into hyperspace for a trip to Zonama Sekot.

As Ichrat sat back to take a nap behind the controls while the shuttle was travelling light-years at a time, Jacen and Danni sat in the ship's troop deployment area next to each other.

"Under normal circumstances, I'd be happy to return to Zonama," Jacen said in a frustrated tone. "But with this Sith threat..."

"It was the best I can do, Jacen, you have to understand that," Danni interjected patiently. "We're lucky that Trache allowed us a shuttle at all."

Jacen shook his head as if not hearing what Danni just told him. "If only we could have gotten the Fels on our side."

"Their honor may have been restored after Jag killed Alema Rar," Danni said, "but I doubt even they would have had the influence on the Ruling Families necessary to give us a ship and head straight to Ossus from there."

"You didn't even try to contact Baron Fel," Jacen said, looking at her accusingly. "He probably would've responded, too, since we met him during the search for Zonama."

Danni scowled. "And how long do you think it would have taken for Fel to get back to us on that, only for him to most likely tell us, 'Sorry, I couldn't persuade them?' You heard Trache, the Ruling Families-"

"Need every available ship to counter the Superior Chiss," Jacen cut her off in an annoyed tone as he looked away from Danni. "Yeah, I heard him."

Danni sighed. "Jacen, I know you feel responsible for all that's happened, because you got caught by the Sith and then the Superior Chiss-"

Jacen waved her off from continuing. "Don't. Just don't."

Danni continued to stare at Jacen in askance, who still avoided eye contact with her, before she sat back in silence.

After several moments of awkward silence between them, Jacen capitulated and looked at Danni, who avoided eye contact with him. "Look, Danni, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just that... I'm so scared for everyone. For everyone I care for. And without being able to sense them, I don't know what's happening to them. If the Sith have hurt or killed any of them, like they killed Aunt Mara..."

As Jacen spoke, Danni turned to look at him and gently placed a hand on his cheek by the time he mentioned his late aunt's name. "I know, Jacen. I know. You don't have to say anymore. You're not responsible for what's happened; you're not responsible for everything that happens in the galaxy. You're not alone; you're not the only one who's failed."

At that, tears started to roll down Jacen's cheeks, and he began to sob noiselessly as Danni pulled him into a hug.

They stayed like that for an hour. A few minutes after the end of that, Ichrat awakened from her nap and swiveled the pilot chair around to look back at her passengers; they had both fallen asleep, with Jacen's head resting on Danni's shoulder. Danni's own head was propped up against Jacen's.

Ichrat looked back to her control console to see how much time they had left before they were to arrive at Zonama Sekot. Seeing that they still had about half a day, she decided to close the door that separated the cockpit from the deployment area and open up a compartment near her legs. Ichrat pulled out a flute and began playing a soft romantic tune, one that reminded her of a song that was shared between her parents.

But while Ichrat played a tribute to her parents in homage to what she sensed was growing between Jacen and Danni, the first vestiges of foreboding violence since the Second Galactic Civil War began to appear in the territory occupied by the Galactic Alliance.

Because it was at this point that Jedi Knight Seff Hellin started to suffer from some strange delusions.

. . .

Days later, Jacen and Danni departed from Zonama Sekot with a decently-sized transport vessel that was grown from Danni's seed-partners.

And days after that, that vessel, which Danni christened the _Barabel's Claw_ in honor of her brief apprenticeship to Saba Sebatyne during the Yuuzhan Vong War, had appeared in orbit over Ossus.

"You're sure that you've cloaked yourself through the Force?" Danni asked Jacen. She was in the pilot chair while he was in the copilot seat.

Jacen nodded; his ability to cloak himself through the Force, an ability that Vergere had, was meant to hide his Force-presence to anyone who could sense him, as he somehow doubted that every Jedi couldn't sense him. After all, if Danni could sense him like he could sense her, he knew that it was best to keep his Force-presence a secret until he thought that it was the proper time.

As for any sensors from the Ossus Jedi Academy or any other ships that were currently in the system, Jacen used a technique that he learned from the Baran Do Sages that would render his own presence invisible to such sensors. Of course, Danni's life-signs would still be detected so as to avoid suspicion.

The _Barabel's Claw_ was being hailed from the Academy, so Danni opened a channel.

"Identity yourself and state your intentions here," the masculine voice from the other end intoned. Both Jacen and Danni recognized it as belonging to the receptionist who allowed Danni to speak to Luke days earlier.

"This is Captain Danni Quee of the _Barabel's Claw_," she announced. "I've come to see Luke Skywalker."

"Danni Quee?" the receptionist asked. "Didn't you speak to him some time ago? Why not just send out another transmission?"

"What I have to present to Master Skywalker requires a personal touch, sir," Danni replied evenly.

She glanced at Jacen, giving him a look that asked, _Are you sure this is what you want to do?_

Jacen nodded as the receptionist asked, "Well, I'm sorry, but haven't you heard?"

"Heard what?" Danni asked.

The receptionist's sigh was audible. "To prove that he wasn't responsible for the actions of Darth Caedus years ago, Chief of State Daala has agreed to allow Master Skywalker to retrace Jacen Solo's steps in his post-Yuuzhan Vong War sojourn. In exchange, Master Skywalker would not go to prison, but he must stay away from any and all Jedi establishments, like Temples and the like; essentially, Luke Skywalker has been exiled from the Jedi Order."

"What?!" both Jacen and Danni exclaimed simultaneously.

There was a pause from the other end. "I'm sorry, is there someone there with you, Captain Quee?"

Both Jacen and Danni froze and looked at each other in shock.

"Captain Quee?" the receptionist asked. "Are you still there?"

Jacen was the first to break himself out of the shock from what he just heard and from his revealing exclamation before he abruptly cut the line.

"Turn this ship around," Jacen demanded. "We're going to Coruscant."

"But, Jacen-"

"_Now_! We don't have time to argue!"

Danni pursed her lips, but just nodded. She then turned the _Claw_ around, raced away from Ossus to exit its gravity well, and then launched for hyperspace.

. . .

Gathered in the Great Hall of Coruscant's Jedi Temple was a congregation of countless Jedi who had come to see Grand Master Luke Skywalker, who was now among them, depart from Coruscant for his exile from the very Order that he helped to rebuild. An atmosphere of mourning whirled in the hall, as everyone present was there to see their Grand Master for what may be the last time for at least a decade, if ever.

Acting Grand Master Kenth Hamner had just put an arm around Luke's shoulders, turned him toward the distant main entrance, and gestured his free hand to everyone present.

"Forty years ago, there was one practicing Jedi in all the galaxy, and the Order and the Temple were just ill-formed notions taken from suppressed rumors. Today, what you see before you..."

Hamner stopped mid-sentence, and Luke looked at him in askance as the acting Grand Master's arm slid off of his shoulder.

"Kenth... are you okay?" Luke asked.

Instead of responding, Hamner looked back to the turbolift from which Luke, his son Ben, and Master Cilghal had departed from moments before. The indicator over the turbolift door showed that it was in use and ascending.

"Kenth, are you sensing something I'm not?" Luke asked, seeing the worry on the acting Grand Master's face.

Luke looked around, and he saw many of the faces present share Hamner's worry.

But among the ones who seemed to share Luke's confusion were all of the non-Force-sensitives who were present, like Han, Jagged Fel, Wedge Antilles, and others. However, the few Force-sensitives to share in Luke's curiosity were everyone in his own family, Skywalker and Solo alike.

When the turbolift door opened, Danni Quee stood there standing next to a Jedi-robed figure with their hood pulled up, obscuring their face.

Danni looked at the figure, but they didn't look back at her. Instead, they calmly stepped out of the turbolift, with Danni only two steps behind them, and the mournful atmosphere that had developed in the hall for Luke had very obviously shifted to one of suspicious terror for the hooded arrival.

"It can't be." Kyp Durron's voice was the only one to be heard in the entire Great Hall.

Luke tried to get a look at the hooded figure, but the angle was such that he really couldn't get a good look unless the new arrival allowed him to look.

The figure's evident calm preceded them as they continued their path for Luke; the nervous-looking Danni still kept pace, her gaze flickering between the path to Luke and everyone else in the room.

Luke thought about just asking Danni who this was, wondering if this person was her anonymous source who told him about this Sith organization days ago, before Valin Horn believed that everyone around him was an imposter. However, he ultimately decided to allow the figure to reveal him-/herself.

Before the figure could get within two meters of Luke, Hamner stepped between them to halt the arrival's progress.

"Kenth," Luke said, his curiosity piquing. "Let this person pass. I want to know why I can't sense them." He wondered if this was a Yuuzhan Vong envoy from Zonama Sekot; it would explain Danni's presence.

"But, Master Skywalker-" Hamner started.

"Kenth, please," Luke interrupted.

Hamner looked at Luke with a pleading expression, only to nod reluctantly and step out of the way.

The figure resumed their gradual course for Luke and stopped a meter in front of him. Their visage was still obscured by the hood.

And then the figure lifted up the hood.

When Luke saw the man standing there in front of him, all other noises, all other sights, all other sensations simply failed him as his attention was caught by the face of the man who had just revealed himself to him.

Jacen Solo, Luke's nephew and the murderer of his wife, looked back at him with a sad expression. And for a brief but eternal moment, it was just him and Jacen.

The first thing that Luke heard before reality came crashing back in on him was from Jacen.

"Hello, Uncle Luke."

Now Luke was back in the Great Hall of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, surrounded by a chorus of shocked gasps, murmurs, and even screams, all of it directed at Jacen Solo.

Yet Jacen and Luke were the only ones who stood still as statues; but while he saw the sad expression on his nephew's face, Luke didn't have the mental fortitude to know what his own expression was.

"NOOOOO!" Luke heard Ben shout.

The familiar snap-hiss of a lightsaber ignited beside Luke, and his son's blade moved to strike Jacen down.

However, Jacen pivoted out of the way of Ben's strike and used the Force to rip his cousin's lightsaber from his grasp and into his own.

At that point, almost every lightsaber in the room ignited, as if in warning.

The only Jedi weapon not to be ignited was Luke's own lightsaber; in fact, Luke himself maintained his statuesque pose in spite of the apparent threat to his son and himself.

But then Jacen deactivated Ben's lightsaber and gently handed it back to his horrified cousin, who made no further attempts to try to kill him. Luke's nephew looked at him and asked, "Can we talk?"


	14. Chapter 14

Just as it felt like an eternity before Jacen said, "Hello, Uncle Luke," it seemed as if the same amount of time had passed before Luke himself responded to his nephew's query of whether or not they could speak to each other.

"Whatever you have to say to me, Jacen," Luke said with barely repressed anger, "you can say to everyone here."

Jacen, whose melancholic expression remained, only nodded before he broadened his attention to everyone else in the Great Hall. "My fellow Jedi-"

"Don't you _dare_ call us your fellow Jedi, you treacherous bastard!" It was Hamner who shouted that as he waved his lightsaber before Jacen's face. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't strike you down where you stand!"

"Well, that's the thing, Master Hamner," Jacen responded calmly but loudly enough for everyone to hear. He remained still as Hamner's lightsaber now hung poised inches from his nose; except for the sweat pouring down Jacen's face, he gave no indication that the heat from the weapon was affecting him. "You needn't have any reason to strike me down because I never betrayed anyone here."

"Oh, are you going to try to sell us on some spiel about how it was _we_ who betrayed _you_, Jacen?!" Kyp Durron exclaimed. "Or should I say _Caedus_?"

"No, Kyp, that was not my intention, either," Jacen said, still calm.

"That's _Master Durron_ to you," Kyp growled.

"And I was never Darth Caedus," Jacen continued.

"Oh, pleaze, spare uz the spin that Jacen Solo and Darth Caedus were az different from each other as Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader," Saba Sebatyne proclaimed. "It will not save you, and you should know, Caedus, that Barabelz don't accept apologiez anyway."

"I didn't come here to apologize for the actions of my clone, Master Sebatyne," Jacen said. "I came here to clear my name and reconcile my position in the Jedi Order and especially among my friends and family."

"Clone?" Ben said, his thumb poised on his lightsaber's activation stud. "You really expect us to believe that nonsense, you monster?! You think you can just waltz in here and pass off all the atrocities you committed, like killing my mom, by placing it on a clone you can't prove?" Ben shook his head definitively. "It isn't gonna work like that here."

"But I can prove it," Danni interjected nervously as she took out a datapad from within her uniform. "I have the proof right here. Or at least it can show you that Jacen-"

Then Ben activated his lightsaber and moved to slice the datapad out of Danni's hand.

But it was Luke who halted him.

Ben's lightsaber-wielding hand was caught at the wrist by his father's mechanical hand, and right when the blade's tip was just inches away from the datapad. A second later, Danni hurriedly stepped back a couple of steps to prevent any other potential damage to her 'pad, such as whatever damage could have been caused by the lightsaber's heat.

Ben looked back and up at his father in shock.

"Let's see their proof, Ben," Luke stated firmly.

"But, Dad, it'll just be a bunch of-"

"Lies?" Luke interrupted. "I'm willing to at least give Danni here the benefit of a doubt." He then looked back at Jacen and said, "And if I find that they are a bunch of lies, then I'm sure Chief of State Daala will have an early Life Day when I present Jacen to her as a prisoner so that he could answer for his crimes. But in either case, I think I have a reason to have my exile reneged."

After a moment, Ben deactivated his lightsaber, prompting his father's to release the grip he had on his wrist. Everyone else in the room soon followed suit with the deactivation of their own lightsabers.

With great reluctance, Kenth Hamner was the last one to deactivate his weapon, but he never lowered his blade from Jacen's face a second beforehand.

After Hamner stepped back, Luke offered up his natural hand and Danni gave him the datapad.

Once Luke had finished reading the report that Danni had prepared which detailed Jacen's rescue from a Superior Chiss stronghold mere days ago, and the explanation that he gave about being held prisoner by a Sith organization beforehand, Luke looked up, promptly returned the datapad to Danni, and then looked back at the Solo clan.

There, Han and Leia were holding each other, with tears still streaming from Leia's eyes while Han looked like he could barely hold himself together. Jaina, meanwhile, who had been standing away from her parents as she was being embraced by the stoic Jagged Fel, had a mix of anger, grief, and terror all rolled up into one on her own face; from Luke's point of view, she looked like she was about to break down and collapse to the floor from ultimately crying even in spite of Jag's hold on her.

And little Allana, whose identity was that of the adopted Amelia Solo, stood hidden behind her grandparents, out of view but just barely as she peeked behind Leia's leg to look at the man who bore a resemblance to her father (and that was assuming that he wasn't her father, of course). No tears were evident in her eyes, but she did looked scared.

Luke then looked back at Jacen. "You may share what you have to say." He looked out to the rest of the Jedi. "And please, nobody interrupt. I want to hear exactly what he has to say."

"Thank you, Uncle Luke."

"Just start," Ben was the one to command impatiently.

Jacen cleared his throat and began explaining everything that happened to him; about his initial capture about ten years ago, his torture by a mysterious Sith organization, his unexplained escape, his second capture and subsequent enslavement by the Superior Chiss, and his freedom thanks to the Ferroan-Chiss alliance wherein he learned from Danni everything that had happened just two to three years prior.

Once Jacen was finished, Luke said carefully, "Ben has a point. What I just read from Danni could very well be lies." He then glanced at Danni and said, "You are now under suspicion, Danni."

"What?" Danni asked in shock.

Both Luke and Jacen held up a hand at her to cease any protestations she might have had; naturally, some of the nearby Jedi had their fingers twitch on their lightsabers' activation studs when Jacen made the move.

Once Jacen and Luke resumed their stoic positions and faced each other again, Luke said, "It would not be the first time a Sith had returned from the dead. My experience with the Emperor Reborn can attest to that. And just as clones are far from new in the galaxy, so, too, is the idea that a Sith could be reborn in the body of a clone, like Palpatine. So it would not surprise me if what you are trying to sell me, Jacen, about this clone and Sith business is a conglomeration of half-truths, at best.

"And with what Jaden Korr discovered not long after the last war ended, given his report of the clones of several members of our own Order being discovered in the Unknown Regions, I must wonder if you are not a clone instead. And even if you are not the consciousness of Darth Caedus in a new body, that would still leave the question of whether or not you are some new malevolent entity who has come to wreak havoc on everything we hold dear in the galaxy.

"However, the biggest curiosity is why I can't sense you. I did wonder, when you were walking toward me, if you were a Yuuzhan Vong; you feel as much of a Force-void as they had seemed."

Jacen took a moment before he responded. "I can easily disprove the Yuuzhan Vong theory. Pinch either side of my nose and you'd be able to unmask me; that's how an ooglith masquer works, as I'm sure you remember, Uncle Luke."

Luke did exactly that with his mechanical hand on both sides of Jacen's nose; and he did it one more time to each side for good measure.

And Luke couldn't help but feel a hidden pleasure at seeing Jacen wince under the slight pain that his uncle was causing.

When Luke lowered his hand, he said, "Of course, it wouldn't surprise me if the Yuuzhan Vong had developed a new kind of ooglith masquer that wouldn't be so obvious to undo."

"We both know they're not in that kind of business anymore, Uncle Luke," Jacen said as he scrunched up his noise. "Many of us in this room saw to that years ago."

"Indeed. Tell me, how did you like that banquet on Yavin 4 after Zonama Sekot took the Vong off to the Unknown Regions?"

"I don't wanna play this game," Jacen said, the first note of irritation creeping into his voice.

"What game?" Luke asked patiently.

"Where you test my memories to see if I'm the real Jacen and I confirm or deny them as appropriate," he replied.

"If you have any chance of convincing us of who you are, you'd better play that game," Luke said. "And keep in mind, even if you do succeed, the question would still remain as to whether or not you're Darth Caedus reborn. Now I'll only cover everything from the immediate end of the Yuuzhan Vong War and beforehand, as it seems that Danni's account of your presence would mean that the Jacen we met from the Killik crisis onward would have been your clone."

"And even that's assuming that's the truth," Hamner said.

Jacen's sigh was nearly inaudible. "It wasn't Yavin 4, it was Kashyyyk. Anakin's lightsaber was buried beforehand by Dad, who told Chewbacca that they won the war and that he could finally rest. He later told a joke that made everyone at the dinner table laugh; something about trying to have a vacation."

Luke couldn't help but look back and see that Han was crying now. He looked back at Jacen again.

"Okay then," Luke said skeptically. "Let's move on"

After a series of short questions that Jacen answered, either confirming or denying them as appropriate, Luke finally nodded. "Okay, that's it. You've convinced me that you at least have Jacen Solo's memories."

"Now what?" Jacen asked.

"Now we go back to why I can't sense you through the Force," Luke said. "Why is that?"

"I have a theory on that," Jacen said. "And just so you know, it may explain why I can't sense you either, Uncle Luke; or anyone else in the family."

"Please explain."

"I think it may have something to do with Jaina killing Caedus," Jacen said. "Just as he had my DNA, he also had all of my memories thanks to that Sith Master copying them from my mind; so he essentially was me down to my Force-presence, corrupted though it may have been. So when he died while I was still under that Force-repressing shock-collar, something must have happened where the loss of his Force-presence must have affected my ability to sense those who were closest to me. That's why some of you can sense me while a few of you can't."

While both Skywalkers maintained their varying levels of suspicious gazes at Jacen, no one from Jacen's immediate family could look at him as they quietly sobbed in their own corners.

"You can't expect any of us to believe anything he's said, Master Skywalker!" Kyp interjected. "I mean, listen to his story! That's probably the most convenient pack of lies I've heard to explain away his guilt in the last war!"

"Master Durron, I can tell you, the torture and enslavement were never convenient for me," Jacen said evenly.

"You shut up!" Kyp exclaimed. "Now while you present no active threat to us right now, I can assure you, Caedus, that it won't stop me from knocking you out and taking you to Daala myself so she can put you in carbonite with Valin Horn!" Kyp didn't even seem to notice the sobbing that was coming by from the Horn clan nearby that was prompted by the reminder of Valin being in suspended animation. "And that's saying something considering what that witch did to me years ago that I'd rather see her than you again!"

"Kyp, enough!" Luke shouted.

Even the sobbing from both the Solo and Horn clans ceased at Luke's pronouncement.

Luke sighed before he spoke to Jacen again. "Whoever you are, I have no choice but to present you to Daala. I told her that I was to retrace the steps in Jacen Solo's sojourn; perhaps she can repeal my exile as I hope. In the meantime, until we know more about you, we'll see about whether or not we can prevent you from being placed in carbonite."

Luke looked around at the assembly of Jedi and their non-Force-sensitive accomplices. "If none of you have anything better to do, I want you all to stay here until I return to explain what Daala has decided to do with this... new development." He looked down at Ben. "That includes you, Ben."

Ben didn't even try to argue.

"And you stay here, too," Luke said to Danni.

Jacen nodded at her to comply; she returned the nod obediently.

Luke didn't even have to tell his nephew to come with him to the turbolift that brought them to the Great Hall.


	15. Chapter 15

Galactic Federation of Free Alliances Chief of State Natasi Daala scowled after what her receptionist told her from her desk's intercom.

"Send him in," she said impatiently.

A moment later, the should-be-exiled Grand Master of the Jedi Order, Luke Skywalker, walked into her office. Daala stood up from behind her desk and maintained her scowl as she glared laser beams at Skywalker.

"You've got some nerve coming in here after you're supposed to be gone, Master Skywalker," Daala practically growled. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't call secur-"

She abruptly stopped mid-sentence when Jacen Solo appeared from behind his uncle. Daala briefly regarded Solo, or whoever this new arrival was who appeared to be Jacen Solo, a.k.a. Darth Caedus, with a mixture of disgust, shock, and confusion without saying a word.

The Chief of State looked back at Skywalker and demanded, "Explain this."

"If I do," Skywalker said calmly, "do you promise to repeal my exile?"

"Don't think," Daala said as she walked carefully around her office to approach the two men, "that just because you present this... being to me that you're now in any position to make demands of me, Skywalker."

"I'll take that as a maybe," Skywalker replied evenly.

Daala gave Solo another glance before looking back at Skywalker. "My receptionist didn't tell me I'd be having two unscheduled visitors; did you tell him not to say anything, so that it wouldn't ruin this _surprise_, Skywalker?"

"I guess I should probably get on with explaining the man beside me, Chief Daala," Skywalker said.

Daala crossed her arms in expectation as the Jedi Master explained the sudden appearance of the man beside him and the story that he told about in the Temple's Great Hall.

When Skywalker was finished, Daala looked at Solo as if he had just been caught running nude through a banquet hall.

"And you expect me to believe that highly unlikely story?" Daala asked in dismay.

"Not really," Solo answered honestly. "If none of the Jedi in the Great Hall did, I certainly don't expect you to."

Daala sneered. "Look, I don't care who you really are, if you are the real Jacen Solo while Darth Caedus was your clone, or if you're a clone, or whatever." She then looked at Skywalker. "What I'm concerned with is how you're going to be able to convince anyone in a court of law of this, Skywalker."

"I'm as skeptical as you are on this matter, Chief Daala," Skywalker said. "But, please, don't try to lie to me by saying that you're concerned that I can convince anyone that the man beside me right now is telling the truth. We both know that you want to exile me so you can gain more control of the Jedi."

"Are you threatening me, Master Jedi?" Daala intoned.

"Not at all," Skywalker said.

"Good," Daala replied evenly. "Now, let's say that I do believe in what you just told me. You shouldn't expect me to just allow him to remain loose even if he doesn't pose any threat to the galaxy like Valin Horn."

"I wouldn't expect you to," Skywalker said. "Which is why I request that you allow the Jedi Order to keep him confined in-"

"I didn't say that your exile was repealed, Skywalker," Daala cut him off abruptly.

"So then what will the purpose of my exile be?" Skywalker countered.

Daala's nostrils flared with frustration. "If we can do this quietly, and allow the GA to put him in carbonite..." She trailed off as she eyed Solo, who gave no visible reaction to the proposal that she just gave Skywalker. Upon looking back at the Grand Master, Daala continued with, "Perhaps I can look over the case against you, Master Skywalker, and convince Judge Zudan to overturn your exile."

"You can't just let that be the solution to-"

"Yes, I can, so unless you want to see yourself in carbonite, too, Skywalker, I suggest you turn this man here over to the authorities so that he can be placed in the same stasis as Valin Horn! For everyone's safety!"

The three of them remained quiet for quite some time before Skywalker ultimately said, "So I suppose that my exile has effectively been repealed then?"

Daala looked at him confusedly. "What?"

"You just said that if I don't give him over to you to put into carbonite, you'd have me arrested and put into carbonite, as well. And if I do cooperate, I don't have to leave the Jedi Order. In either case, my exile has been revoked."

Daala rolled her eyes. "Very well. Your exile has already been revoked, Master Skywalker. At least unofficially. But what's it going to be? You continue to roam free while the man beside you is put into carbonite, or you join him. Either way, he will be put into carbonite, Master Skywalker, whether or not you or he cooperate."

Once again, the three of them were silent for a long while.

Skywalker sighed. "Very well. You can have him, Chief."

Daala nodded. "Don't let him go anywhere," she commanded as she returned to her desk and called security.

Soon after, two guards, both human male, entered the office, and Skywalker and Solo turned to appraise them. Neither guard seemed fazed by the appearance of Jacen Solo, seemingly back from the dead.

"I'm going to give you two very special tasks, for which the both of you shall receive substantial bonuses," Daala said to the guards as she walked between Skywalker and Solo to address the guards. "Take this one-" indicating Jacen with a wave of her hand "-and escort him not only from this building, but directly to the Armand Isard Correctional Facility. I'll inform the warden to expect you. And keep his hood up the whole time, I don't want anyone seeing his face on your way there. I'll make sure your positions are covered during your transit"

Both guards nodded, took a compliant Jacen Solo between them by his elbows, and promptly escorted him out of the room. And on their way out, the guard to Solo's left flipped his hood over his captive's head.

Once Solo and the guards were gone, Skywalker looked back at Daala. "I assume you'll tell your receptionist not to tell anyone about this?"

"Obviously," Daala stated. "I'm honestly surprised, though, Skywalker. I'd thought you'd put up more of a fight for your nephew. You don't believe his story either?"

Skywalker said nothing as he turned around and headed out the door.

Daala sneered once he was gone. "And a good day to you, too," she said sarcastically.


	16. Chapter 16

A few minutes ago, Lord Wyyrlok had received a communique from one of the One Sith's agents operating somewhere in the Outer Rim. The communique informed Wyyrlok that within a few hours, Jedi Knight Jaden Korr would be arriving on Korriban from hyperspace as part of his investigation into this anonymous information about a Sith organization that Luke Skywalker had given him prior to his exile from Coruscant. So, now, almost every single member present in the One Sith Temple of Korriban was hurrying to clear out any and all evidence of recent occupancy.

The only exception to this was Darth Krayt, who stood in one of the Temple's underground vaults, which was currently open. There, he looked at a small collection of Rakatan mindspears with a mixture of regret and disgust.

He ground his teeth at the sound of a familiar chuckle. Krayt swiveled around and saw Vergere heaving her shoulders in an approximation of human laughter.

"Oh, if only you had those mindspears when you had Jacen in your grasp," Vergere taunted Krayt. "It would have saved you so much time and trouble to yourself; such a shame that the discovery of these devices was only so recent." She shrugged. "Alas, what's done is done. And speaking of mindspears, I understand that Jaden Korr is coming here."

"What concern is it of yours?" Krayt asked. "Or are you here just to point out how even a mindspear being put to use had been fruitless?" He was referring to a mission assigned to a pair of Umbaran siblings known as the Nenns, who had been tasked by Wyyrlok while Krayt was in stasis, to have Jaden Korr replaced by a clone to infiltrate the Jedi Order. Two mindspears were given to the Nenns to accomplish the task, which would have seen Korr's clone's consciousness, complete with all of his memories, transferred into his body.

However, the mission had failed, with both siblings ending up dead. And now the very Jedi that they failed to replace was coming here with the intention of confirming or denying the existence of a Sith Order currently in activity.

"Well, not _just_ to point that out," Vergere said, "as I've also decided to stop by to ask you if you know how Luke Skywalker got his anonymous tip about an active Sith organization."

Krayt titled his head in curiosity. "I am not quite sure, as I have not yet received any reports on the matter, but I can hazard a guess." In that moment, at least, Krayt decided to suspend whatever hostility that he had toward Vergere to work with her; it would only waste time to deny her, he figured. "Jacen Solo."

"So you do have a functioning brain after all," Vergere said contemptuously.

"I suppose you are not going to tell me where he has been for almost a decade?" Krayt asked.

"Would it matter to you if I did?"

Krayt sighed. "No. What matters is now. So are you going to tell me where he is?"

"If you said please," Vergere said, "and in a nice tone at that, I might consider it."

Krayt growled and left the vault without saying another word. Vergere, for her part, simply disappeared with the Fosh equivalent of a smirk at Krayt's retreating form.

. . .

"Wait!"

Both guards stopped in their tracks in the hallway outside of Daala's receptionist's office, each of them still holding onto one of the elbows of the man who looked like Jacen Solo, and turned to look at the Jedi Grand Master who called for them to halt. The guards' positioning made it so that their prisoner's back was still turned to Luke.

"You're gonna need me," Luke elaborated once he caught up with the guards and their prisoner. "I can keep him from escaping if he tries to use any of his Force-powers."

The guards looked at each other for a couple of seconds before looking back at Luke.

"Fine," the guard to Luke's left said. "Just put your hood on, sir. We don't want anyone to notice the Jedi Grand Master, who's supposed to be in exile from this planet, escorting this prisoner with us."

Luke nodded wordlessly and complied. Then the guards turned back and resumed their course with Jacen—Luke decided that was what he would call the man until he could absolutely confirm or deny his identity in the future—still between them to the turbolift.

But then, just as they all reached the 'lift and the guard to Jacen's right pressed the down button, Jacen himself suddenly disappeared.

And not as if he had just become one with the Force and leaving his clothes and accessories behind, just as Obi-Wan Kenobi had all those decades ago. No, he was simply _gone_.

Naturally, just as Luke stood in surprise at the sudden disappearance, both guards looked in shock at the now-empty space between them and took their blasters out from their holsters before looking back at Luke.

"What just happened? Where did he go?" the guard to Luke's right asked hurriedly.

Luke raised both hands up to chest level to indicate that he had nothing to do with what just happened. "I honestly have no idea."

The guard to Luke's left raised his commlink up to his lips, only for his colleague to put a hand on his wrist. "What are you doing?" the guard to Luke's right asked.

The other guard looked at his partner in askance. "We have to alert the building. An errant prisoner is on the loose."

The guard to Luke's right shook his head. "We've been tasked to make sure that no one that the Chief hasn't already informed knows about this. We have to handle this ourselves."

"Then shouldn't we tell the Chief at least?" the guard to Luke's left asked.

The guard to Luke's right shook his head. "If we do our jobs right, she won't ever know."

"I think this is a little outside your paygrade, gentlemen," Luke chimed in. "This is a matter of the Force; a matter I'm well acquainted with."

"What are you going to do, Master Skywalker?" the guard to Luke's right asked.

"Find him, of course," Luke said as he walked past the guards and into the turbolift that had just opened up. "And bring him back here so we have no problems with Chief Daala."

"But how do you know where he'll go?" the guard who was now on Luke's left asked. "You can sense him through the Force, right?"

Luke nodded. "Sure." A blatant lie, given that Luke was, for whatever reason, unable to sense the man who claimed to be his nephew. The doors closed and Luke was rocketed down to the building's ground floor.

However, within a few seconds, Luke pressed the stop button to cancel the trip to the ground. He then pressed the button to the building's roof, and he was then rocketed toward that destination.

He raised his commlink to his lips with a frequency already set. "Kenth?"

"Yes, Master Skywalker?" Master Hamner's voice returned.

"The man who claims to be Jacen has escaped," Luke said tersely. "Since I can't sense him but you can, I'm gonna need you to meet me on the roof of Daala's office immediately."

"I'm on my way, Master Skywalker. Hamner out."

_Now where could you be going, Jacen?_ Luke wondered.

. . .

Having teleported himself to the roof of Daala's office, Jacen wasted no time breaking into a run for the nearest ledge and jumping off it; as he allowed himself to enter a brief free-fall, he cast off his robe, allowing it to flutter down into the depths of Coruscant's underworld hundreds of storeys below.

Jacen landed in a duck-and-roll onto the next rooftop before heading to the ledge ahead of him and repeating the same process for the next roof. He then repeated that pattern for several more rooftops, with some giving him a slight ascent and others a slight descent that formed a zigzag across the skies of Coruscant.

As Jacen performed this display of Force-assisted parkour, he wondered how long it would be before he eventually attracted enough attention; and, hopefully, it would happen before any Jedi or Galactic Alliance authorities showed up to stop him.

At some point, Jacen knew that he attracted quite a bit of attention; hopping between rooftops in broad daylight on Coruscant tended to do that, as many in speeders and speeder bikes saw him as he raced by.

Several minutes had passed before Jacen was finally stopped by a military shuttle appearing over the next ledge in front of him. The shuttle turned to its side so that the troop deployment area was opened up, allowing over a dozen GA military officers to jump out, form a perimeter around Jacen while aiming their blaster rifles at him, and keep him in place with their now-stationary aims.

But before Jacen could even think about teleporting out of there, his Uncle Luke and Kenth Hamner jumped from the shuttle's deployment area and into the circle that was formed by the GA soldiers. Both Jedi had their lightsabers in hand but inactive.

"Don't try to think about teleporting out of here again, Jacen," Luke intoned. "While I may not be able to sense you, Master Hamner here sure can. So he can alert me and all of these soldiers if you try that technique; and do you really wanna take the chance that all of these soldiers here have their rifles set to stun?"

Before Jacen could respond, a different shuttle appeared from the ledge that was behind him. Everyone present on the roof, Jacen included, shifted their attention at the new arrival.

But instead of bearing the GA military logo, this shuttle bore the logo of the news network known as _The Perre Needmo News Hour_.

Jacen looked back at Luke and Hamner. "The three of us all know that Daala's not the wise choice to help us out with this Sith problem," he said. "She wants to keep it all quiet, brush it under the rug-"

"Hey, shut up, will ya!" one of the soldiers, a male Devaronian who was apparently their field leader, exclaimed to Jacen. Then that same soldier looked to one of his colleagues, a male green-skinned Twi'lek, and asked, "And how the hell did they know we'd be here? I thought we had a transponder scrambler to keep any press from knowing we were-"

"It wasn't you they followed, you idiot!" Hamner couldn't help but exclaim to the Devaronian. "They followed _him_!" He indicated Jacen with his inactive lightsaber. "He jumped from rooftop to rooftop deliberately attracting attention to himself! You think someone at _The Perre Needmo News Hour_ hasn't learned of Jacen Solo running loose in the skies of Coruscant with so many witness reporting it on their datapads?!"

"Which means you already failed to keep this quiet," Jacen chimed in to the Devaronian.

"I said shut up!" the field leader shouted. "And can someone get that damn news shuttle outta here?!"

Then Jacen suddenly used the Force to pull all of the rifles out of the soldiers' grasps; in the process, they all fell prone to the rooftop's surface.

At the same time, both Luke and Hamner leaped forward to Jacen, activating their lightsabers in midair.

But it was not to strike Jacen down; instead, they cut away at the incoming rifles that Jacen sent in his own direction. However, the distraction to the two Jedi Masters was enough for Jacen to perform several backflips, and by the time both Luke and Hamner landed, with all of the rifles in pieces around them, Jacen was on the ledge that faced the news shuttle.

He quickly turned around and leaped for the shuttle, grabbing onto its roof. Jacen held on for dear life as the shuttle swirled around in the air before eventually settling down on a lower rooftop nearby.

Meanwhile, as the news shuttle was making its rapid descent toward that nearby rooftop, Luke and Hamner deactivated their lightsabers, hurriedly helped the downed soldiers to their feet, and quickly escorted them back to their military shuttle. Once they were all aboard, the vessel soared over the rooftop that its occupants were just on and followed the news shuttle down to its unplanned destination.

When the news shuttle had landed, albeit somewhat roughly, Jacen slid off the shuttle's top and onto the surface of this new rooftop. He knocked on the vehicle's side door while looking up at the descending military shuttle.

Running out of patience, Jacen used the Force to wrench the news shuttle's door open. Inside, a female Rodian and a male Chadra-Fan quickly backed away from Jacen in fear to the shuttle's cockpit, which was piloted by a dark-skinned human female.

"Please, don't destroy any of our equipment!" the Chadra-Fan pleaded as Jacen hurriedly looked through and fumbled with the equipment.

"Pilot, get us out of here!" Jacen shouted. "And keep your distance from that military shuttle!"

"We have the infamous Darth Caedus aboard, I think we should do what he says!" the Chadra-Fan told the pilot in panic.

The pilot, without hesitation, complied and set off at top speed away from the pursuing military shuttle. The woman behind the helm seemed to be in a class of her own as she traversed the air traffic of Coruscant's skies; if circumstances were much less hectic, Jacen wondered if the pilot could have out-flown Jaina.

As the chase proceeded, with the pilot of the military shuttle doing their best to keep up, Jacen looked away from the news equipment, knowing that he wouldn't get anywhere with this more or less unfamiliar technology, and to the Chadra-Fan. He asked, "How do you send a transmission to your studio? I got some things I need to say."

"Um, okay, let me show you," the rat-like alien said as he cautiously approached Jacen from the cockpit.

"And no tricks," Jacen said. "I can sense any deception you try to make through the Force, got it?" He didn't like to have any threat implied to the diminutive being's life, but if it would help him accomplish his goals under this situation, he wasn't going to let the Chadra-Fan think that he could bamboozle him.

"G-g-got it," the Chadra-Fan said before he proceeded to help Jacen.

Soon, a transmission was set up.

"Perre, do you have me?" the Chadra-Fan asked among the equipment.

"I have you, Retlak!" the voice of news anchor Perre Needmo replied.

"Can you send a live broadcast from here? I have a very special guest who'd like to say a few words to the galaxy."

"Of course. Just patch the footage through."

A green light appeared among the equipment. Retlak the Chadra-Fan nodded at Jacen and stepped back. "Just look at the camera there and say your piece."

Jacen returned the nod before looking at that camera.

"People of the galaxy!" Jacen announced. "To all those who live in the Galactic Alliance and other governments! Many of you, if not all of you, know me as Jacen Solo, or as Darth Caedus. Well, I'm here today to let you all know that the man you knew as Darth Caedus was not me, but a clone! A Sith-created clone! There's an organization of Sith that's loose in the galaxy and which Chief of State Daala wouldn't want anyone here to know about, and she'll even keep the Jedi Order, the guardians of peace and justice throughout the galaxy, silent about it!

"I don't expect anyone to believe me on my word alone, especially after everything Caedus did. But I can't just stand back and just remain quiet and allow myself to be put into carbonite because Daala thinks it'll be inconvenient otherwise! And for all those who refuse to believe my words at all, I have no other way of convincing you; all I can do is let you know that your safety in the galaxy is not guaranteed.

"And to the Sith who've captured me and used my DNA to create Darth Caedus, I'll be coming for you. And even if I fail to bring you to the light, even if I die before justice is wrought upon you, I can assure you, the Jedi Order, sooner or later, will find you. And however your darkness will be destroyed, whether it'd be through your deaths or your surrender, the end result will be the same: your defeat by the hands of the Jedi Order!"

Jacen then turned away and leaped out through the still-open door of the news shuttle. He allowed himself to plunge to the depths of Coruscant's underworld, where he eventually landed with a Force-cushioned impact that spared his life. Looking above, he saw the military shuttle descending after him; the news shuttle was nowhere in sight.

Jacen figured that it must have been ordered, whether by Perre Needmo or by a transmission from the military shuttle, to just return to the studio; fine by Jacen, he thought. They already served their purpose.

Jacen turned to the entrance of a nearby decrepit building and rushed inside.

Minutes later, after the military shuttle landed and the building was thoroughly searched by Luke, Hamner, and their GA military backup, all of Jacen's pursuers exited the building with nothing but frustration.

"Can you sense him, Kenth?" Luke asked as they were returning to the military shuttle.

Hamner shook his head. "Wherever he is now, he's too far for my Force-senses to register him."

Once they were all back aboard the shuttle, Luke said stoically, "We'll find him. Whatever it takes." The shuttle then lifted off.


	17. Chapter 17

After the antique Z-95 Headhunter _Far Wanderer_ dropped out of hyperspace to enter the Horuset system, her pilot, Jedi Knight Jaden Korr, saw that there was a blinking red light on his control console. He pressed a button to have the light be replaced by what it had been indicating: a priority HoloNet message sent from the Jedi Order while Jaden had been in hyperspace.

Grand Master Skywalker's holographic visage appeared over the Headhunter's console. "Jaden, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that my exile from Coruscant and from the Jedi Order overall has been overturned. The bad news is because it relates to what I'm about to show you, in case you haven't seen it already."

Luke's face was then replaced by that of what Jaden thought to be the dead Jacen Solo, who was apparently very much alive. Jaden watched the footage that was broadcast courtesy of _The Perre Needmo News Hour_ wherein the man claiming to be Jacen told the entire galaxy that Darth Caedus was a clone of him and that there was a Sith organization currently operating somewhere in the shadows.

When "Jacen" had said his piece and the broadcast concluded, Luke's face returned over Jaden's console, his expression grave. "Report back to me as soon as you can, Jaden. And please... tell me he's lying." The message ended.

Jaden sighed as he looked out at his next destination: the ancient Sith world of Korriban. Jaden had been here nearly three decades before, when he had accompanied Luke, his Master Kyle Katarn, and fellow apprentice Rosh Penin to help defeat the Empire Reborn as led by the Dark Jedi Tavion Axmis. Not only was Jaden the one to defeat Axmis, but he had also been the one to banish the spirit of the ancient Sith Lord Marka Ragnos from her body by destroying Ragnos's Scepter.

Although that was a victorious day, Jaden hoped that his next visit to Korriban would be significantly less eventful; in other words, he hoped that all he would find were some ancient Sith relics that could never be used again.

Jaden piloted the _Far Wanderer_ forward and took her down through Korriban's atmosphere. He settled it somewhere not too far from the gate that led to the Sith Temple. From there, he disembarked from his ship and looked up at his astromech, who remained in his socket behind the _Wanderer_'s cockpit.

"I shouldn't be gone for more than a couple hours, R6," Jaden told the droid. "If I'm gone for any longer than that, send a message to the Jedi Order that something may be wrong. Take off and return to Coruscant if you have to."

R6 tootled an affirmative, then Jaden turned and headed for the Sith Temple.

Once inside, he immediately began his search. For well over an hour, he combed through every single area he could find, level by level, and found nothing but dust and ruin from bygone eras in the Sith's long history.

Compared to his time here all those years ago, it was positively boring. He almost—_almost_-wished that something interesting would happen to break up the tedium.

But then something did happen.

Approaching the door, Jaden suddenly doubled over not in pain, but as if he had just lost a vital sense.

Which was because he had: he had lost his sense of the Force.

Was there something behind that door that was inhibiting his Force-senses? Could it be something like an ysalamir? If so, what was an ysalamir doing here in a Sith Temple on Korriban?

Jaden opened the door and found some kind of talisman resting within the confines of some kind of deactivated machine that was the size of a speeder engine. He took several cautious steps forward while leveling his hand up so that it would eventually touch the talisman; he hoped that it wouldn't produce anything terrible effects upon him once his fingers rested on it.

Jaden suddenly halted in place when he heard a female scream from above; but it was not a cry of terror, but a cry of battle, for a red-skinned female Twi'lek was dropping from the room's ceiling in a fighting stance.

She landed upon Jaden, dropping him to the ground, and then she quickly pressed an elbow to his throat; the Twi'lek was choking him out.

"My Master will be pleased when I bring him to you, Jedi," she sneered.

Then Jaden's vision faded away and he passed out.

. . .

Before the members of the One Sith who were present in the Sith Temple of Korriban had departed with everything that would have indicated that there was recent occupancy, the Twi'lek Cay'lun had intercepted Darth Krayt on his way to his departure vessel to make a special request to him.

"My Lord, may I have a moment of your time?" Cay'lun asked.

"Do not make it too long of a moment," Krayt intoned. Around them, the other Sith members were already departing from the Temple's hangar bay or were just finishing up preparations to depart.

"I know that you have already assigned someone to monitor the Jedi when he comes here," Cay'lun said, "but may I be the one to do it instead?"

Krayt crossed his arms across his chest. "You wish to prove yourself, do you?"

Cay'lun nodded.

"The Defel Gexta, to whom I have assigned this mission, is much more qualified," Krayt stated evenly. "He would more effectively monitor Jaden Korr's movements from the shadows of this Temple than you could. Gexta has less of a chance of being discovered than you."

"My Lord, may I speak freely?" Cay'lun asked with some hesitation.

"I will allow you _some_ leniency in your speech for the rest of this encounter," Krayt said. "So say your piece, but mind yourself."

Cay'lun nodded. "I see this as a challenge for myself. Gexta would not be challenged with this task. I feel that if I am not placed in this position, my powers will not grow to the point that they should."

Krayt just stared blankly at Cay'lun for a moment before speaking. "You show much promise, Cay'lun. However, you know that if I were to assign you this, if you fail and expose our existence to Jaden Korr, and, by extension, to the entire Jedi Order, I will be the one to personally execute you."

"I understand that, My Lord."

"And it would be neither quick nor painless," Krayt said. "In your final moments, your agony will be so excruciating, you will not only regret the day you were born, you will not only regret the day your mother was born, you will not even only regret that your ancestors were born, you will regret that your very _species_ was ever born to bring you into this universe. Do you understand that?"

"I do, My Lord." There was no fear in Cay'lun's eyes.

Krayt smirked. "You have confidence, a necessary trait in a Sith. Let us hope that it is not the arrogance that the Jedi criticize us so strongly for."

"You have my word, I will not let you down, My Lord."

After a moment, Krayt brought up his commlink. "Gexta?"

"Yes, My Lord," the voice from the commlink asked.

"You may depart with me," Krayt commanded. "I have found a replacement for you in your duties."

"I will join your shortly, My Lord."

Krayt replaced the commlink to his belt. He then told Cay'lun, "There is a subspace jamming device that prevents any and all transmissions either coming to or leaving this planet; it is located behind a false wall in Gexta's quarters. You can find it using your Force-senses; once you have, just pull the wall open and deactivate the jamming device before contacting me and letting me know that the Jedi is gone."

Cay'lun nodded. "I will, My Lord."

Krayt said nothing more to Cay'lun before walking past her and boarding his departure vessel.

. . .

Now, after quickly defeating Jaden Korr and recalling Lord Krayt's vessel to Korriban via an encrypted HoloNet signal, Cay'lun presented the unconscious Jedi at her Master's feet in the Sith Temple's hangar bay.

Krayt looked down at Korr's unconscious form in anger. He then looked up at Cay'lun, who returned his glare with a stare of fear.

"When did you render him unconscious?" Krayt asked, barely keeping his anger back.

Cay'lun hesitated in her response, prompting Krayt to shout, "ANSWER ME!"

"Only a minute before I contacted you, My Lord," Cay'lun said, her legs shaking.

"You contacted me half an hour ago," Krayt growled. "Did you drug him?"

Cay'lun nodded, still fearful for her own life at the moment. "He shouldn't be conscious for another hour or so, My Lord."

Krayt didn't look the least bit pleased at knowing about that. "I saw on my way back here that the Jedi's ship is still outside this Temple; and with an inactive astromech droid in it. Would you happen to know anything about that?" His question dripped with contempt.

"Inactive astromech?" Cay'lun asked, her fear now mixed with confusion. "But why would the Jedi bring a non-functioning droid with him?"

"Maybe because it was not non-functioning," Krayt intoned with a tilt of his head. "Perhaps it only appeared that way on my ship's sensors; perhaps this droid deliberately disguised its own signal to make itself appear dead to my entourage and me when we returned." He indicated the five Sith behind him who had been aboard the departure shuttle, among them being the Defel Gexta, the one who had been assigned this mission in the first place. The other four were Darth Wyyrlok, Garis Boric, Dician, and a female Gran named Jekna.

"Or maybe the droid had shut itself down so that a program that it set up for itself reawakened it after a certain period of time;" Krayt suggested, "perhaps for after the time that it estimated that my ship would leave the sky."

"My Lord, if this Jedi's continued existence here threatens us, we can kill him and his droid and-"

Cay'lun was suddenly stopped from saying anymore when an invisible grasp closed around her throat. She began to gasp and futilely grabbed at her throat to try to breathe better, but Krayt's Force-choke could not be overcome.

Thankfully for the Twi'lek, the grasp only lasted for a quarter of a minute before she could breathe well again. As she gulped in lungfuls of air, Krayt, still on the verge of yelling, asked, "After you contacted me, did you turn the jamming device back on?"

Now Cay'lun's breath stopped of her own volition as she once again looked at her Master in terror. "No, My Lord," she whispered fearfully.

Krayt then turned to Jekna. "I want you to hurry to that Headhunter and disable it. I do not want it destroyed; until a way can be found to remedy this situation, I do not want any decision to be made that is absolutely irreversible." He didn't have to explain further that to commit any action, such as destroying a Jedi's ship, might lead to suspicions about the One Sith's existence.

Jekna nodded wordlessly and hurried out of the Temple to do her Master's bidding.

Krayt then looked back at Gexta. "Take us to your quarters now!"

Gexta nodded again and led Krayt and his entourage out of the Temple's hangar. For his part, Krayt had Cay'lun join them by grabbing her by one of her _lekku_ head-tails, dragging her along as she seethed in pain.

Once Krayt and his retinue reached Gexta's quarters, the Defel, using the Force, opened up his secret compartment that contained the aforementioned jamming device and quickly activated it again.

Then, without missing a beat, Gexta moved to one of the other walls in his quarters and opened that one up with the Force, too. The transceiver that was programmed to automatically activate whenever the jamming device was off rested there, having recorded any and all transmissions that could have been broadcast to and/or from Korriban.

Now that the jamming device was back on, the transceiver had been turned off. So Gexta picked the transceiver up, tuned it so that it could pick up any frequencies that _tried_ to leave Korriban, and saw that there was now a signal that was attempting to leave the planet. He read the Aurebesh translation for that signal.

"We're just getting this now," Gexta explained to Krayt, who maintained his painful grip on Cay'lun's _lekku_. "Nothing was broadcast to or from Korriban before I turned the jammer on, so the signal, which is apparently coming from an astromech droid, isn't leaving the planet."

"So we just made it," Garis Boric remarked in relief. "And that droid thought that tricking us into thinking it was dead would work."

"It almost did," Krayt intoned, looking at Boric. "But we cannot always count on good timing, Lord Boric." The Sith Master, with his free hand, brought up his commlink. "Jekna?"

"Here, My Lord."

"Did you disable the Jedi's Headhunter?" Krayt asked.

"I did, My Lord. And the astromech has awakened; it is panicking."

"Shut it off but do not destroy it," Krayt commanded.

"As you wish, My Lord."

Krayt then cut off the frequency, and after replacing the commlink to his belt, he threw Cay'lun to the floor, releasing her _lekku_ in the process.

"Leave us," he said to everyone who was standing in the room. "And make sure that Korr gets another round of anesthesia, enough to keep him under for another hour and a half. It appears that we need to have the Force Nullfier and its amplifier active again; and call Morto since his ship has all of those inhibitor chips that will allow us to still use the Force in spite of the Nullifier's amplified effects. It shouldn't take him long to return here." He then reached for Cay'lun's neck and took off the inhibitor chip that was on her neck; apparently, she must have swiped one from Morto's collection before he left Korriban with all of the other chips, Krayt thought. He placed that chip within the folds of his robes so that it may be useful for a future member of the One Sith.

Wyyrlok, Gexta (who replaced the transceiver to its previous position), and Boric all complied with their Master's orders without hesitation by making themselves scarce.

"You should have just let him leave with no valuable information!" Krayt roared. "That was all you had to do!"

"I'm so sorry, My Lord!" Cay'lun pleaded, curling up into a fetal position on the floor. "I only wanted to make you proud!"

"Was this your idea of taking some initiative?" Krayt retorted. "There is no room for such things when I am in command of the One Sith! There is only my command when I am not in stasis! And you have failed to heed that command!"

Then, for the next half hour, Cay'lun's screams echoed throughout the entire Sith Temple before she finally died as a smoking corpse.

Krayt sneered down at Cay'lun's body before spitting on her. He then used the Force to rip her charred carcass into ashes.

A _tsk-tsk-tsk_ sounded from behind Krayt. He slowly turned around to once again find Vergere.

"What insults do you throw at me now?" Krayt asked darkly.

"No insults this time," Vergere said coyly. "Only to let you know that maybe you should turn on the HoloNet; deactivate that jamming device first, of course."

"Why, what is on the HoloNet?" Krayt inquired.

"Why should I spoil the surprise?" Vergere then faded away again.

Krayt took a moment for himself before he deactivated the jamming device. He then took out his datapad to see what Vergere thought to be so interesting on the HoloNet.

This time, Krayt's screams echoed throughout the Temple; but unlike Cay'lun, whose screams were of the utmost pain and agony from the torment that her Master wrought upon her, Krayt's screams were of utter anger and frustration from the information that Jacen Solo unleashed upon the galaxy.


	18. Chapter 18

"Why am I being kept prisoner here?" Danni asked. "I've already told you, I don't know where he is. He seems to have cut himself off from me through the Force; probably just to protect himself. You think I'm lying about this?"

"Honestly, Danni?" Saba Sebatyne asked. "Yes."

The two of them sat on opposite sides of the table in the interrogation room of the Armand Isard Correctional Institute. The typical police interrogation setup of a harsh light overhead, aimed slightly more at Danni than Saba to make the former feel less than comfortable, was present.

Danni sighed. "Saba, you and I know each other."

"Correction, Danni, _knew_ each other," Saba countered. "Many years have passed since the Vong War. A lot can change about people in that amount of time, especially among humans."

"Why would you think I'd betray the Jedi Order?" Danni asked. "After I fought alongside them against the Vong?"

"You quit it," Saba pointed out simply. "Thiz one would not expect loyalty to this Order from someone who resigned from it."

"But, Saba, you can feel my presence!" Danni said. "You have to know I'm not lying!"

"You were accompanying Jacen Solo," Saba stated. "He'z well known to be able to subvert the Force-senses of even great Masterz like Master Skywalker. Perhapz he taught you the same trick."

Danni's jaw dropped in disbelief. "He taught me nothing about the Force since I helped rescue him from the Superior Chiss! And why would you think I would knowingly aid and abet someone who I even thought was evil?"

"Az I understand it," Saba said as she crossed her arms across her chest, "you and Jacen had feelingz for each other, yes? During the Yuuzhan Vong War, when we were looking for Zonama Sekot with the Skywalkerz and Jacen, you two grew close."

Danni hesitated as she was once again gobsmacked by what Saba was saying. "You think I'm helping a Sith Lord because I _love_ him? And, no, Saba, it never went anywhere, Jacen and me. And the man I helped rescue from the Unknown Regions is a damaged man who's undergone a lot of trauma and pain in his life, but he is not the man you think he is!"

"Then, once again, it should not be that difficult for you to tell us where he iz," Saba said. "If he is innocent, az you claim he iz, then his innocence will be determined in a court of law."

Danni sighed in frustration. "But, Saba, I just told you-"

"That'z _Master Sebatyne_ to you, Miss Quee," Saba interrupted.

Danni sat back with an annoyed expression. "Really? You're gonna resort to _that_?"

"You have just lost any familiarity privilegez that you might have had with me, Miss Quee," Saba stated formally. "I don't think you deserve them with your lack of cooperation."

Danni sighed again. "If I knew where he was, I'd tell you."

"Even if that meant he might be put in carbonite? Or killed on the spot?"

Danni found herself unable to answer that.

But before Saba could say anything more, Luke Skywalker's voice sounded over the interrogation room's intercom.

"Master Sebatyne, may I speak with you?"

The Barabel said nothing as she stood up from her seat and left the room.

Soon, she met with Luke, Master Hamner, and Captain Oric Harfard of Galactic Alliance Security.

"I think she's telling the truth," Luke said without preamble.

"My instincts tell me the same thing, Master Skywalker," Saba responded. "But I can't let my instincts overcome all logic. I still think that Danni might-"

"It's obvious that we won't get anything more out of her," Luke interrupted. "I can sense her very well through the Force; she isn't lying."

Captain Harfard scoffed. "Considering the two of you-" he indicated both Luke and Hamner with a wave of his hand "-lost the guy who claimed to be Jacen Solo, I don't think Chief Daala's gonna be too happy about your assessment."

"It's the best assessment she can get," Hamner stated evenly.

"She won't see it that way," Harfard replied. "And, quite frankly, neither will I."

"Are you suggesting that we put Danni in carbonite with Valin Horn, Captain Harfard?" Luke asked.

Harfard shrugged noncommittally. "I personally see no other option, Master Skywalker."

"But she's no danger to the galaxy!" Hamner exclaimed. "Even you can see that!"

"What I can see may very well be deceiving," Harfard intoned. "We have a willing accomplice to Jacen Solo here, and we have no choice but to assume that this is Jacen Solo, probably brought back from the dead. Considering the fact that Emperor Palpatine once did that, it may not be as farfetched to claim to the public as it might be if we were just dealing with a regular criminal."

"Putting Valin Horn in carbonite iz something I can tolerate," Saba chimed in. "Putting Jacen Solo in carbonite is something I think is too good for him. But Danni? We have no solid reason to keep her in captivity!"

Harfard sighed in frustration. "Do I need to get Chief Daala involved in this conversation?"

All three Jedi Masters looked at each other for a moment before they looked back at Harfard.

"Call her up," Luke said calmly. Yet, somehow, it came off as if he were daring the captain.

It didn't take long for Harfard to get Daala via his commlink.

Surprisingly, the ex-Imperial actually asked Luke for his input. "Do you think putting Danni Quee is a wise course of action, Master Skywalker?"

Luke was nonplussed that Daala didn't just overrule him outright. It took him a few seconds before he replied. "No, Chief Daala."

"Then I will leave her in your custody," Daala said. "But she must not be allowed outside your Jedi Temple until the search for Jacen Solo has concluded. Is that understood?"

"I take it that she would be placed in carbonite if she so much as steps foot outside of the Temple walls, Chief Daala?" Saba asked.

"You got it, Master Sebatyne," the Chief of State said. "Daala out."

Harfard, predictably, looked angry. "Just get her out of here," he told the Jedi Masters, indicating Danni.

Minutes later, the Masters and Danni were on a speeder back to the Jedi Temple, with Luke piloting, Hamner in the passenger seat beside him, and Saba and Danni in the back.

"I'm actually surprised that the Chief was so accommodating for Danni," Hamner admitted. "I thought she'd take Harfard's side."

"I doubt Daala did it out of some saintly notion of mercy," Saba said. "She probably didn't wanna risk another rampage through Coruscant's skies like Jacen if she'd agreed to put Danni in carbonite."

"Rampage?" Danni asked. "That implies Jacen caused any damage before he got word out about the Sith."

"No property damage, perhaps," Luke said. "However, what he's done was damage our relationship with Daala because of that stunt he pulled with that broadcast."

"Now that implies that the Order'z relationship with Daala was working all that well to begin with, Master Skywalker," Saba countered.

"You have a point there, Saba," Luke replied.

After a while, Saba said, "I hope you did not take that interrogation personally, Danni."

"I thought apologies were beyond Barabels, Saba. Oh, sorry, _Master Sebatyne_."

"It iz true, it is difficult for us Barabels to understand that concept," Saba said. "But, all the same, I hope you will not hold it against thiz one."

After a moment, Danni sighed. "I don't hold it against you, Saba. All things considered, you were probably more friendly to me than any GAS agent or cop could have been."

"If that is true," Saba said, "then I apologize for not doing my job properly." She then wheezed in laughter.

In spite of herself, Danni couldn't help but chuckle.


	19. Chapter 19

Under normal circumstances, Krayt would have appreciated watching a Jedi Knight writhe and scream in agony under the grasp of the Embrace of Pain. However, whatever positive feelings Krayt could have had by observing Jaden Korr's pain were drastically muted by the rage he felt by the discovery of Jacen Solo's announcement to the galaxy that indicated the One Sith's existence.

Krayt knew that Solo didn't reveal anything substantial, and he also knew that many in the galaxy, the government of the Galactic Alliance included, would more than likely dismiss the disgraced Jedi's words as either lies or the claims of an insane man. However, the fact that Solo even indicated the One Sith's existence made Krayt feel a sort of anger that he wasn't quite sure how to express; and screaming about it wasn't quite right.

In fact, he thought this type of anger elicited feelings that he dared not express; he imagined that if Vergere were here to make this moment even worse, she would say something along the lines of, "Aww, is the big scary Sith Lord feeling exposed and vulnerable?"

His blood boiled at the thought that he could actually picture what that disgusting bird would say. The idea that she was communicating to him from beyond the grave through his subconscious made him almost scream.

But he held back on that; here, as he stood in the chamber of the Embrace of Pain, he knew that he had to maintain his self-control.

"Who... who are you?!" Korr cried. "Do you have anything to do with Jacen Solo returning? What is he?! Is he a clone?! Is he the real Jacen?! Is what he's saying true?!" He then devolved into more screaming.

Krayt approached the upside-down Korr with slow, deliberate steps. "I owe you no more of an explanation... than I did with Solo."

The Sith Master then shoved the Rakatan mindspear that he had in his hand directly to Korr's forehead. Whatever pain the Jedi had felt from the Embrace of Pain was suddenly overridden by the spasms he experienced as all of his memories were drained from his brain.

Soon, with the essence of Jaden Korr now in the mindspear, Krayt turned from the dead Jedi and went to place it in a body, currently in stasis, that was based off of Korr's DNA.

Again, Krayt lamented how the One Sith didn't have this technology back when they had Jacen Solo in their clutches.

. . .

Within the bowels of the Vongformed underworld of Coruscant, Jacen found shelter inside a decrepit apartment that was overrun by yorik coral and other Yuuzhan Vong-based non-sentient lifeforms (like insects). Regardless, the bed he found for himself was still comfortable to sleep in, and he found that there was enough canned foodstuffs and bottled drinking water to last him a week, maybe a week and a half if he rationed it out well enough.

But while his circumstances were less than ideal, it did give him time to plan and think about what he was going to do next. It had been two days since he got the message out about the Sith organization, and he was honestly surprised that he still hadn't been caught by either Galactic Alliance forces or by anyone from the Jedi Order. And while he did wonder what was going on back within the upper levels of this planet, where the Galactic Alliance continued to live, he knew that he had to find a way to deal with the Sith without the help of either the GA or the Order.

The first thing that he had to come up with was a way to get off Coruscant. Jacen, who was pacing back and forth in what was once the living room of this apartment as he thought about his next course of action, figured that even though he was infamous thanks to Darth Caedus, he could probably still stowaway aboard a freighter. It wouldn't be hard to do so at some spaceport that was far enough away from Daala's immediate control or from viewing distance from the Jedi Temple.

But Jacen couldn't help but not ignore the "Then what?" question that ran through his mind. Without any solid basis as to where to start looking for the Sith, he could spend the rest of his life searching the galaxy for their presence and never come close to their true base of operations. And his memory of his escape from their planet was too hazy to be of any help to him; moreover, he couldn't forget the fact that the navicomp coordinates in the now-destroyed _Solo Quest_ were of no help to him either.

Which meant that if he was to have any kind of basis, even a loose one, of beginning his search for the Sith, he needed to have some kind of record of any and all Sith planets and other galactic locations, like moons and stations and whatnot, to even help him get started. It was possible that perhaps the Sith could have changed their base of operations since Jacen's escape nearly a decade ago.

But even as he was thinking about all of this, there was a nagging notion at the back of Jacen's brain that told him that he was forgetting something.

Or, rather, _someone_.

He stopped in his tracks and smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Stupid," he said aloud. "How could I forget about Danni?"

In all the time that he was evading capture down in the bowels of Coruscant and thinking how he would take down the Sith, he'd selfishly forgotten about freeing the person who helped get him out of enslavement from the Superior Chiss. So, now, not only did he have to find a way off Coruscant without getting caught, he had to find a way to get Danni to escape with him.

Of course, he had to find out where she was, and that was assuming that she was all right. He trusted that the Jedi wouldn't do anything wrong to her even with her direct association with him after he revealed himself to the Jedi, but with Daala in charge of the GA, Jacen wasn't sure. And since he'd cut himself off from whatever was happening in the wider galaxy at the moment, that meant that he had to find a way to get back in and, of course, not get caught while even searching for Danni.

Slowly, carefully, Jacen opened himself much more freely to the Force as he reached out to her, closing his eyes in the process. He broadened his Force-presence throughout Coruscant and, knowing that he was taking a big risk, he went straight for the first place that he thought that she would be kept: the Jedi Temple.

Indeed, she was there. She was all right and actually quite comfortable, if a little worried.

Then, when he opened his eyes, he suddenly found himself in a much nicer, more cleaned up apartment setting. He looked around and found Danni sitting on a sofa; she was looking up at him from a datapad she'd been reading.

"Jacen?!" she exclaimed as she stood up. "What are you doing here? How did you get in here?"

"Oh, no," Jacen muttered. "I must have accidentally used the Aing-Tii teleportation method. I didn't mean to do that! And Tadar'Ro told me it was so hard!"

A second later, Jacen felt the essences of every Jedi present in the Temple alerted to his own.


	20. Chapter 20

Hurriedly, Jacen shut his eyes again and tried to concentrate. He once more broadened his Force-presence outward, returning it back to the decrepit apartment overrun by Vongforming.

"Jacen, look out!"

Danni's voice prompted Jacen's eyes to flash open, and he immediately spun out of the way of a green-bladed lightsaber honed by a young male Whiphid. Jacen then used the Force to tear the alien's lightsaber from his grasp and into his own before Force-blowing the Whiphid back against the wall behind him. The alien collapsed prone to the floor, unconscious.

While the hilt was slightly thicker than what Jacen was used to, he realized that it would have to do, especially with a male Togruta wielding a blue-bladed lightsaber rushing in at him from the entrance/exit of Danni's quarters. Jacen backed away several steps as he utilized the Soresu defense form against his opponent; once he felt the wall behind him ending his backward trajectory, Jacen leaped up and over the Togruta while maintaining his stolen blade's contact with the attacking Jedi's.

Upon landing, Jacen allowed the Togruta to pivot around to face him, but at the same time, Jacen pushed his lightsaber downward against the opposing blade, overbalancing his alien opponent. Jacen then snap-kicked the Togruta up the jaw, sending him back against the wall behind him and knocking him out.

Jacen spun back around and found that four more Jedi had entered the fray: two light-skinned human females, a male Zabrak, and a female Barabel, all of whom had their lightsaber blades ignited. Once they were all in position, they rushed in toward Jacen.

The four Jedi's target cartwheeled several meters off to his right before landing and using a Force-blow that struck the Barabel directly in the head. She went down almost immediately, but that didn't slow down the three remaining Jedi. Jacen soon found himself engaging the two human female Jedi, blocking their blows almost simultaneously, while the Zabrak quickly circled the combat area to try to strike Jacen down from behind.

But before Jacen had a chance to defend himself against that alien, the latter was taken down by Danni, who tackled him to the floor. While the Zabrak's lightsaber clattered away in its deactivated state, Danni got him in an arm-lock before knocking him unconscious by kneeing him in the back of his head.

"Grengaw!" the human female to Jacen's left cried out to the defeated Zabrak.

That distraction allowed Jacen to twirl away from the woman to his right and knock out the one who shouted her (presumed) lover's name by placing an elbow hard against her nose. She dropped to the floor like a pile of bricks, but that still not only left the remaining human female for Jacen to continue dueling, but six more Jedi who entered the room.

Jacen managed to disengage from the human woman he didn't knock unconscious before proceeding to the run around Danni's quarters, exchanging quick defensive strikes against the invading Jedi without allowing himself to get cornered or overwhelmed by their superior numbers.

Thankfully for Jacen, however, Danni's help hadn't started and ended when she dispatched the Zabrak; as Jacen dashed around the living area of her quarters, Danni knocked out each of the other Jedi with sucker-punches and quick hand-chops to the sides of their necks. Her advantage had been that they were too distracted by Jacen to pay any attention to her.

Once they were all down, Jacen, who had deactivated the Whiphid's lightsaber and hooked it onto his belt, looked at Danni and said, "We gotta go before more arrive! Take my hand!"

Danni complied as Jacen shut his eyes. But after several seconds, he opened them again and looked around the room and at Danni in fear.

"But I had time! Why didn't it work?" Jacen wondered aloud. He wasn't even asking Danni.

"Well, for whatever reason, we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way," Danni observed quickly. "Come on, let's go." She then led the way out of her guest quarters.

The two of them looked both ways out in the corridor to find a turbolift on each side.

And both of them were currently in use; no doubt by Jedi who hoped to intercept and stop Jacen by any means necessary.

"This way!" Jacen pointed to the 'lift to his right before taking off in that direction. "The Jedi I sense there have far less experience; they may be easier to defeat."

Sure enough, when that 'lift door opened, Jacen, who had the stolen lightsaber in hand and alight again, found himself facing half a dozen Jedi, all of whom seemed to be in their late teens or early twenties.

However, instead of activating their lightsabers and rushing out of the 'lift to engage Jacen head-on, they all stepped out of the way.

But not for Jacen; for his sister.

The twins only exchanged a single second of looking at each other; while Jacen looked at his sibling in shock, Jaina looked at her sibling with rage.

Jaina then dashed out of the turbolift with no further hesitation and with her purple lightsaber ablaze. She backed Jacen down the corridor with vicious offensive strikes as he desperately defended himself with Soresu again.

And this went on unabated for several seconds as the dueling twins approached the turbolift opposite the one that Jaina emerged from; neither of them changed their tactics or disengaged to try a different strategy to defeat their opponent.

But Jacen did try to reach out to his sister the whole time.

"Jaina, please, stop! Listen! I'm your brother, there's no need for this! I don't wanna hurt you, and you don't have to kill me! I may not be able to sense you, nor you me, but you have to know that I'm not a clone, nor was I Darth Caedus! It's me, Jaina! You have to believe me!"

She never responded at all; Jaina only maintained her rage-filled glare aimed at her brother's eyes.

By the time Jacen said that last sentence, they had reached that other turbolift.

And emerging from its opening were all of the Jedi Masters of the High Council (minus the Solusars, who were currently on Ossus). They were facing Jacen's backside as he was corralled by his sister towards them.

Once Jacen was about a meter from the 'lift, Jaina then swiftly disengaged from her brother and committed a few back-flips. When she landed and had her lightsaber deactivated and hooked back onto her belt, all of the Masters had formed a circle around Jacen. The tip of each of their blades surrounded his neck.

Luke was the one that Jacen ended up facing.

"Turn the lightsaber off, Jacen, and give it to me," Luke said.

Without hesitation, Jacen complied.

"You came back here," Luke observed in a neutral tone as he placed the stolen lightsaber to a spare hook on his belt. "Why?"

"I came to rescue Danni," Jacen said. "Although, admittedly, it was kind of a premature arrival."

"What, you mean because of the fact that you stopped by when there were still so many Jedi here?" Kyp Durron sneered. He was positioned directly to Jacen's right. "Premature, indeed."

"I mean that I accidentally committed the Aing-Tii teleportation method when I reached out to sense Danni," Jacen admitted.

"So that was how you escaped from Daala's office," Luke said. "Why didn't you try it again to get outta here?"

"Honestly? I don't know."

"Honeztly?" Saba, who was on Jacen's left, asked. "You mean you were never honezt with uz before?"

"You know that's not what I meant, Master Sebatyne," Jacen said. He was sweating from the heat of the lightsabers like he had back in the Great Hall when Master Hamner, by himself, held his blade so close to Jacen's face.

"Then what do you mean, Jacen?" Saba inquired.

Jacen took a moment to himself before he responded. "It means that I would never lie to any Jedi Master even if it made myself look bad... or foolish, for that matter."

"Is that so?" Luke asked.

"Yes," Jacen said simply.

Several heartbeats passed between everyone present as the Jedi who had been knocked unconscious joined Jaina out in the corridor to observe the Masters' cornering of Jacen. The young Jedi who had been with Jaina in the other turbolift had already apprehended Danni, with one of them, a burly Wookiee who looked like he could have been a younger brother to Lowbacca, keeping both of Danni's hands behind her.

Then Luke raised his lightsaber and deactivated it. He promptly hooked it back to his belt.

All of the other Jedi, Masters, Knights, and apprentices alike, looked on at Luke's decision with silent disbelief.

"My fellow Masters," Luke said, "you may lower your defenses. This man is no threat to us."

"B-but, Master Skywalker-" Kyp tried to say.

"Do it, Kyp," Luke commanded.

With some hesitation, Kyp was the next one to deactivate his lightsaber.

Then Kyle Katarn deactivated his own lightsaber. Then Corran Horn followed suit. Then Octa Ramis. Then Cilghal. Then Saba.

Kenth Hamner, like before in the Great Hall, was the last one to replace his lightsaber to his belt.

"I don't know who you truly are," Luke said. "But until I have a solid reason to believe that you are a threat, I will treat you as a guest in this Temple and I shall call you Jacen. I will assume that what you tell me is the truth, even though I am the only one in this Council who is unable to sense your presence or intentions. I will give you a chance to prove yourself and your claims regarding this Sith threat." He then turned around and looked to Jaina and the other Jedi with her.

"This man could've killed any one of you, but he didn't," Luke pointed out. "Even if he were some malevolent clone or Darth Caedus reborn or some other dark sider, Sith or otherwise, he would have slipped up and ended any one of your lives. Someone who would have been a threat to our way of life would not value it so much if it meant that it increased the possibility that his own would have been taken."

Luke then tossed the lightsaber that Jacen took directly to its rightful owner, the Whiphid who was the first Jedi who Jacen had knocked unconscious.

The Grand Master turned back to Jacen and the Jedi Masters.

"So, as long as you and Danni remain in this Temple, out of sight from the public and from the Galactic Alliance," Luke said, "I will guarantee your protection and assume that you are telling the truth... Jacen."

Jacen smiled and nodded respectfully. "Thank you, Uncle Luke."

Luke didn't even need to tell the Wookiee holding onto Danni to let her go; he just did, allowing the woman to rub her wrists from the extreme pressure applied to them by the intensely strong alien.

"I will see to it that you get your own quarters, Jacen," Luke said.

"Um, Master Skywalker?"

Luke turned around again. "Yes, Danni?"

"Jacen can stay with me... if that's all right with him."

Luke turned back to his nephew. "Well?"

"I think it's a good idea," Jacen said evenly.

Luke nodded and moved out of Jacen's way. He walked to Danni and they returned to her quarters together.

"There's no further reason to dwell here like this," Luke said. "Back to whatever business you all had beforehand."

The Jedi congregation dispersed, with most of the non-Masters heading to the turbolift opposite the one that the Masters emerged from.

The only one to approach the Council members was Jaina.

"Uncle Luke, may I have a word?"

Luke nodded and waved the Masters back into the turbolift that they came from. Once the doors had closed over them, he turned his full attention back to his niece.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Jaina asked.

"I'm _confident_," Luke said. He then sighed. "Because I don't think there could have been a better decision that could have been made from this event."

Luke then lowered the Fallanassi illusion that he had placed over the Temple windows that were lining this corridor. Whoever had been passing by in a speeder during all the action in the corridor would have only seen Jedi passing by, peacefully minding their own business. No one would have, or could have, noticed anything awry when the illusion had finally been dropped.

Except for a drone recorder owned by one Javis Tyrr.


	21. Chapter 21

When Luke returned to his office and sat himself down behind his desk, he realized that he had just forgot something. He snapped the fingers of his natural hand next to his head and contacted Danni's personal commlink.

"Yes?" the woman's voice asked from the comm.

"Danni, since you brought Jacen into your quarters, did he step out of it?" Luke asked.

"No, Master Skywalker. In fact, the first thing Jacen decided to do after entering my quarters with me was to go and take a shower. He's still having it right now."

"Good, good," Luke said. "Now, listen, until further notice, I want you to make sure that Jacen doesn't step out of your quarters or even appear within eyesight of any of the windows that line the corridor outside your quarters. Is that understood?"

"Yes, it is. Hey, wait a minute. This is to make sure that no one outside the Temple or the Order can see Jacen, right?" Danni asked.

"It is," Luke confirmed.

"But then wouldn't people have seen-"

"I'd put up a Fallanassi illusion that I maintained until you and Jacen returned to your quarters," Luke explained. "I set it up as soon as Master Hamner told me that Jacen was here."

When that had happened, Luke and the other Masters present had just concluded a meeting to make a bid to get Valin Horn's carbonite-encased body transferred from the Armand Isard Correctional Institute to the Temple. When it was decided that they would send the proposition to GAS Captain Oric Harfard for approval (even though all of them, Valin's father Corran included, figured that the proposition would be outright denied), all of the Masters who weren't Luke had seized up in their seats. As Luke had told Danni, it was Kenth Hamner who told him that Jacen was in the Temple, and in Danni's quarters at that. Luke, joining the Masters as they all left the Council chamber to intercept and capture Jacen, had put up the Fallanassi illusion outside of Danni's quarters.

"That's good to know," Danni said. "But, Master Skywalker, I assume you have a plan for Jacen to eventually move around the Temple more freely? I'm sure you understand that, for psychological reasons, he can't just be cooped up in here like a pris-"

"I do have a plan, Danni," Luke said. "And I promise to get back to you on it. Just keep Jacen comfortable in the meantime."

"I will."

"Skywalker out." He then replaced his commlink before activating the hypercomm on his desk.

After he made sure that the line was encrypted, the holographic visage of Talon Karrde eventually appeared over Luke's desk.

"Master Skywalker, what can I do for you today?" Karrde asked politely.

"Hi, Talon. May I speak to Ghent?"

"You may. One moment, please." Karrde's face was then replaced by the insignia of the Galactic Alliance's logo.

After a minute or two, the logo was replaced by Zakarisz Ghent's face.

"What do you want?" Ghent asked.

Luke ignored the man's curtness, which would have been mistaken for rudeness by someone who wouldn't have known Ghent's socially inept personality. "I'm gonna need something special from you, Ghent. A small, portable cloaking device, one that can fit in the palm of a grown human male's hand. How soon could you get that ready for me?"

"Three days, if I were to start in the next minute or two," Ghent answered. "And I'm sure Karrde could get it to you in four after that."

_I hope Jacen doesn't go stir crazy in Danni's quarters for a week_, Luke thought.

"I'll make sure the payment is settled with him," Luke said. "Skywalker out." He terminated the connection before contacting Danni again.

"Jacen will have to remain in your quarters for about a week," Luke said. "If he asks why, tell him it's so that I can get him a cloaking device from Zakarisz Ghent so he can roam the Temple freely."

"I don't think he's gonna be happy about waiting that long," Danni said. "But I'm sure he'll understand."

Luke terminated that connection, too. Now to check up on Jaden Korr since he hadn't heard from him for a while.

Once a secured hypercomm connection was established with Jaden, the first thing that the Knight told Luke was, "I was just on Korriban, Master Skywalker. I found no evidence of Sith activity there."

Luke was taken aback by the quickness of that statement. He didn't even have a chance to ask him why he hadn't reported in for the past two days.

When Luke didn't immediately respond, Jaden asked, "Master Skywalker, are you okay?"

"Yes, Jaden, I'm fine," Luke replied. "I would just like to know why you didn't report in recently."

"I apologize," Jaden said. "I had some comm troubles. Nothing to worry about."

"I see," Luke said as he now felt suspicious for no apparent reason. "Well, then, Jaden, continue with your search for this Sith organization and report back to me when you can tomorrow."

"Wait, Master Skywalker."

"Yes?"

"I think it's safe to say that there is no Sith organization and that the man claiming to be Jacen Solo is lying," Jaden said. "I believe, respectfully, that this search that you have me is, quite frankly, a waste of time."

"Do you now?" Luke asked as he crossed his arms over his shoulders.

"Yes, I do."

Luke thought he saw some kind of dark glint in Jaden's eye; not a physical glint, but something much deeper than that.

"Well, then," Luke responded carefully, "if that's how you feel, Jaden, feel free to return to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant at your earliest convenience."

"I will, Master Skywalker."

"However, _I_ don't think that this search for the Sith is a waste of time," Luke said. "Therefore, I will assign someone else to continue this job."

Jaden gave a nervous chuckle. "Um, Master Skywalker, with all due respect, I don't think it's necessary for anyone else to continue this search, either."

Luke tilted his head at Jaden. "A waste of time for them, too, right?"

"Of course."

"Well, only if that hypothetical Jedi felt that way, Jaden," Luke said. "But if such a Jedi were to take this Sith claim as seriously as I did, I would even assign them to Korriban to see if there was anything you might have overlooked."

"Overlooked?" Jaden asked. "What do you mean, Master Skywalker? I think it'd be pretty hard to overlook a large number of Sith living in a Temple."

"Yes, but it might not be that difficult to miss a subtle clue that you might have missed, Jaden. A clue that might, say, point to recent occupancy, as if the Sith might have evacuated not too long prior to your arrival."

Luke saw a flash of surprise on Jaden's face before the Knight's expression resolved into one of curiosity. "Are you implying, sir, that the Sith, if there were any, might have known that I was coming to Korriban? But how could they have known that? They'd have to have a spy somewhere... I guess maybe in a spaceport that I must have been hanging out in, but I swear, I'd never tell anyone of my-"

"You were in a spaceport before you went to Korriban, Jaden?" Luke interrupted.

"Well, yes, I was getting some drinks from a station several dozen light-years from Korriban," Jaden said. "But as I was saying, I wouldn't divulge my mission to anyone even to those within our Order, Master Skywalker, not even while drunk. I can assure you, I'm responsible with my drink."

"I believe you, Jaden," Luke said evenly. "Still, with you dropping out from this assignment, I will be sending someone else to Korriban shortly."

"Master Skywalker, I told you, it's unnecessary," Jaden said quickly and firmly. "It'd be a waste of Jedi resources. You shouldn't believe that man who claims to be Jacen or that woman with him."

Luke let a moment pass between him and Jaden before he said. "Very well. I will let this search for the Sith die, Jaden. Please return to Coruscant as soon as possible."

"Of course, Master Skywalker."

After Luke terminated that connection, he raised Kyle Katarn on his comm. "Kyle, I think I need to talk to you about Jaden. I think something isn't right."

That proposal to Captain Harfard would have to wait...

. . .

Danni stayed in her bedchamber to let Jacen have some privacy after he stepped out of the shower to dry and clothe himself. Until he could get any clothes in his size, the robe that Danni gave him would have to do for now.

Not that he'd be going anywhere for a week anyway.

"A week?" Jacen asked in disbelief. He and Danni were standing apart from each other when she told him how long it would be before he got that cloaking device from Ghent. "I gotta be in here for a week?"

Danni shrugged. "Well, it's not the worst of circumstances."

Jacen sighed before he went to sit down on the sofa. "No, you're right. I have been through worse. It's not like I'm being tortured or enslaved. Still, with the Sith out there-"

"You heard your uncle, Jacen," Danni said as she walked over to him and sat down next to him. "He's taking this Sith threat seriously now, just like you."

"But you know that I can't just sit here waiting for the Order to do something about it," Jacen said. "That just isn't me; and that's saying something when I'm considered the pacifist in my family." He sat back and began thinking about what he could do even when he had to be in here.

"Well, Jacen, let me ask you this," Danni said. "Before you inadvertently brought yourself here, what did you intend to do?"

"Save you, of course," Jacen answered. "I couldn't just leave you behind after-"

"Aside from that," Danni interrupted. "If it weren't for your concern for me, what were you going to do?"

"Well, I was going to leave Coruscant. But..."

"But what?" Danni asked.

"I knew that I needed a decent foundation to start my search for the Sith," Jacen said. "And that foundation would be a record of any and all Sith bases throughout history from some kind of database." His eyes widened in realization and he looked at his companion. "Danni, you can travel freely in the Temple. I want you to go down to the archives and pull up everything you can for known Sith bases in all the time they've been known to have been operating for the past few thousand years."

"You don't ask for much, do ya?" Danni replied wryly. "Of course, you don't think the Order hasn't already done that for the agent they sent out to investigate the Sith?"

"Then ask Master Skywalker who the agent was," Jacen asked. "Maybe he or she could give us the information."

Danni raised her commlink to her lips. "Master Skywalker?"

"How many times do you think we'll be contacting each other today, Miss Quee?" Luke's voice asked with a tinge of humor.

Danni gave a light chuckle. "Hopefully, the last time." Her tone became serious again. "Can you please get Jacen and me in contact with the Jedi you sent out to investigate the Sith? Or at least provide us the information they had about known Sith locations in the galaxy?"

"I'll make sure that info is available to you shortly, Danni," Luke said, "in the Temple archives."

"Thanks," Danni said. "I'll head down there right away."

When Danni came back to Jacen an hour later with a datapad filled with the information that Jaden Korr had before he set off on his search, the two of them looked through the systems and worlds where the Sith organization could be hiding.

When they looked through the Horuset system, Jacen stopped their search.

"Korriban," he said with certainty. "It's gotta be it. I remember the way the planet looked and all of these moons when I escaped nearly a decade ago. Tell Uncle Luke."

Before Danni could reach for her commlink, there was a knock on the door.

"Get over there, make sure you're out of sight from the door," Danni said as she pointed to a corner of the room.

Jacen complied as Danni went to answer the door.

Luke was standing on the other side. "I heard what Jacen just said before I knocked," he explained. "That these Sith are hiding on Korriban. May I come in?" Danni nodded and waved the Grand Master into her quarters before closing the door.

"However," Luke continued, "earlier, I got a message from Jaden Korr. He told me that he found no Sith or any traces of them on Korriban."

"But, Uncle Luke, it has to be Korriban!" Jacen exclaimed. "I remember it distinctly!"

"Do you think Jaden might be lying, Jacen?" Luke asked.

Jacen hesitated in his response. He shook his head. "I don't think so. Maybe the Sith were hiding; maybe they hid themselves somewhere where Jaden couldn't find them. Maybe they even left the planet in preparation for his arrival."

"Interesting theories," Luke said. "Of course, how would they have known that he was coming for them?"

"I don't know," Jacen said. "All I know is it can't not be Korriban."

Luke tilted his head at Jacen for a moment before responding.

"A week, Jacen," Luke reminded his nephew. "Remember to stay in here for the next week, no matter what happens." He then turned to leave Danni's quarters.

"No matter what happens, what's that supposed to mean, Uncle Luke?"

Luke opened the door to leave Danni's quarters before looking back at Jacen. "If everything you say is true, as I'm now starting to believe it is, then you may be more important than you realize. So it's imperative that you stay in here until I say it's okay for you to move around the Temple freely, Jacen. Is that understood?"

Jacen hesitated before he responded with a nod. "Understood, Uncle Luke."

Luke said nothing more before he left Danni's quarters.

Danni leaned close to Jacen to whisper to him, just in case Luke might still be outside listening to them; it might have been possible for the Grand Master to be fooling Danni with some Force-trick to make her think that he was far away from her quarters by now.

"You're not gonna stay in here, are ya?" Danni whispered

Jacen looked at her and whispered back, "What do you think?"


	22. Chapter 22

Immediately after the hypercomm connection to Luke Skywalker had been terminated, Jaden Korr, or, rather, the second Iteration of Jaden Korr inhabiting his source's body, promptly began inputting the hyperspace coordinates for Coruscant. He was several systems away from Korriban now, and a few more after this hyperspace jump would bring him right back to the heart of the Galactic Alliance and, more importantly, the Jedi Order.

But before he could jump into hyperspace, a sharp pain took over his brain. He grasped vainly at his temples, hoping that it might alleviate some of the agony that he was feeling.

R6, who had his memory wiped back on Korriban before he and the Iteration left the planet, warbled from his socket behind the _Far Wanderer_'s cockpit. The starfighter's translation screen would have told the Iteration that the droid was asking what was wrong had the clone not been preoccupied by the pain in his head.

_This is my body!_ the Iteration heard a voice scream in his mind. _You get out of it! You can't be allowed to return to the Jedi Order! I will stop you!_

That voice sounded like the Iteration's own... and since the Iteration was a clone of Jaden Korr...

_How can this be?!_ the Iteration asked in shock. _You're supposed to be dead!_

_You don't have Master Skywalker fooled! Do you really think he can't see through your panic from that transmission? Even if I can't stop you, he sure will. Now do us both a favor and GET OUT OF MY HEAD!_ Jaden Korr's voice roared.

The Iteration started to spasm in his seat as he fought for control over Korr's body; over the next half minute, as R6 continued to warble in concern, the Iteration had brief flashes of nothing but darkness before his vision returned to normal at a quick periodic rate.

Then, after darkness clouded over the Iteration's vision for longer than before, his view returned to normal again. And this time, there was, thankfully, no intense migraine dominating his head.

However, the Iteration had no time to revel in that relief, as he also found the _Far Wanderer_ set to automatic sublight speed; its current heading was for the nearest star a few hundred million kilometers away.

Hurriedly, the Iteration tried to break the automatic course, only to find that he had somehow been locked out.

"R6, why can't I disable the automatic flight system?" the Iteration asked.

After the droid twittered a mournful response, the translation screen said: YOU TOLD ME THAT, NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAID OR DID AFTER YOU SET THIS TRAJECTORY, THE SUICIDE RUN FOR THAT STAR WOULD NOT BE ABATED; YOU TOLD ME THAT I WAS NOT TO GIVE YOU BACK MANUAL CONTROL AND THAT YOU WERE SORRY THAT I HAD TO DIE WITH YOU. YOU ALSO HAD ME TRANSMIT THE COORDINATES OF THAT LAST PLANET TO A SPECIAL RECIPIENT ON CORUSCANT, WITH A SMALL ATTACHMENT. IT'S BEEN AN HONOR SERVING WITH YOU, JADEN.

"Damn it, Korr!" the Iteration cursed as he tried to vainly bypass R6's systems block against him. "No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! How could you still be alive?! Everything that was you was drained from your mind when Lord Krayt killed you! There's no possible way-"

But before the Iteration could continue any further with his futile efforts at regaining manual control of the _Wanderer,_ the ship itself suddenly stalled. The engines strained audibly against whatever was halting its forward momentum

The Iteration looked at his sensors to see what was going on. Some kind of indistinct warship had caught him in a powerful tractor beam off his port bow. The Iteration twisted in his seat to get a good visual on it as R6 was warbling in even more panic than before.

Once the _Wanderer_'s engines finally gave out against the tractor beam's pull, the starfighter began to coast toward the warship instead of the star while R6 continued his shrill panicking,

The Iteration opened a channel. "Unidentified vessel, please identity yourself and state your intentions," he said with an undercurrent of uncertainty.

A sultry female voice responded almost instantly. "Why don't you identity yourself first there, good sir?"

As the _Wanderer_ coasted ever further toward the warship's hangar bay, the Iteration began to sense some dark presences aboard; Sith presences, he thought.

Could they be from the One Sith? he wondered.

"This is the Iteration of Jedi Knight Jaden Korr," he replied with relief. "Thank you for saving me; my ship was locked in a suicide run for-"

"Jedi?!" a new voice, a male one, shouted over the commlink. "Blast him to atoms!"

"Belay that order!" the female voice, no longer sultry but authoritative, responded. "Now, Iteration of Jaden Korr, can you please explain to me what an Iteration is?"

"You're not part of the One Sith?" the Iteration asked without thinking. Then a dreadful thought occurred to him: was this some kind of test that he just failed? By even mentioning the One Sith, or even just by revealing that he was an Iteration of a Jedi, he had guaranteed his own execution?

"One Sith?" the female voice asked. "Who are these One Sith? And you didn't answer my previous question."

By this point, the tractor beam ceased to pull the _Far Wanderer_ any further toward the warship; however, the beam still held onto the starfighter in a tight grip.

"Well?" the female voice asked impatiently after the Iteration failed to respond.

"Is this some kind of test?" the Iteration asked.

Several moments of silence passed before the tractor beam resumed its function of pulling the _Wanderer_ toward the warship's hangar. The Iteration didn't hear from either the female voice nor the male one who ordered that he be blasted to atoms.

Once the starfighter was secured on the deck of the hangar bay, two figures—one male, one female—entered the bay from elsewhere in the warship. From his vantage point, the Iteration saw that while the woman had a normal, if not ginger, skin tone, the man's tone was a deep purple that he had never seen before.

Both the man and woman stopped before the _Wanderer_'s nose and the man waved his arms, indicating that the Iteration pop open his cockpit canopy.

While sensing that both figures had dark auras around them, the Iteration also sensed that neither of them had hostile intentions toward him. They were guarded, sure, and maybe they were even fooling him of their intentions toward him through the Force, but, at this point, the Iteration figured that he might as well cooperate.

If this wasn't a test, he was about to find out.

The Iteration opened up the canopy and, without awaiting further instructions, unstrapped himself from the pilot seat and leaped out onto the deck. Upon landing, both the purple man and the ginger woman activated red-bladed lightsabers in anticipation of attack.

"We didn't indicate for you to leave your vessel, _Jedi_," the man intoned.

The Iteration wanted to apologize profusely in fear for his life and proclaim that he wasn't a Jedi. But he remembered, in the brief time that he had been alive in this body, never to display such pathetic instances of fear thanks to Darth Krayt; even Jaden Korr knew not to do that.

So the Iteration simply stood there patiently, expression and body language blank; it was the safest way to show that he meant no harm and it maintained his dignity.

After a while, the woman said, "Come with us."

The Iteration allowed himself to be guided by both Sith, who still had their blades lit, toward the warship's bridge.

There, he was met by the owner of the voice who inquired about what an Iteration was and who the One Sith were. Standing next to her was a stern-looking man who the Iteration sensed was not pleased to be acting as her subordinate. There were others present aboard the bridge attending to duties at various terminals.

"This is no test," this woman said. "I honestly have no idea what an Iteration is or who the One Sith are. My name is Lady Olaris Rhea of the Lost Tribe of the Sith. The man next to me is Master Yuvar Xal." With a nod of her head, Lady Rhea indicated the man and woman who brought the Iteration here respectively. "These are Sabers Baad Walusari and Axela Zin."

The Iteration noticed, standing almost imperceptibly behind Rhea and Xal respectively, a pale young teenage girl and a purple-skinned boy about her age.

"And the two behind me are my apprentice Tyro Vestara Khai and Master Xal's apprentice Tyro Ahri Raas," Rhea stated.

"You really aren't part of the One Sith," the Iteration said in realization.

"Indeed, not," Rhea said. "Now my patience is wearing thin. Please tell us what exactly you are or I will execute you myself." She indicated the lightsaber that hung at her belt. "Oh, and if you try to fight, you will still not win; you are clearly outmatched. So, please, enlighten us."

"Ah, yes," the Iteration said. "Well, you see, an Iteration is a clone. I am a clone of a Jedi Knight, whose name was Jaden Korr. I work for the One Sith. Perhaps you would like to join them?" He hoped that Lord Krayt wouldn't be mad about inviting anyone into the One Sith without his permission first.

"What is your Master's name, Iteration?" Rhea asked.

"Darth Krayt."

"Take us to Darth Krayt, then."

The Iteration nodded. "Very well."

But even as he said that, a slight ache twinged in the Iteration's mind.

. . .

Within the comfort of his quarters in Coruscant's Jedi Temple, Jedi apprentice Marr Idi-Shael first read on his datapad the attached message that came with a set of transmitted hyperspace coordinates.

HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO REDEEM YOURSELF FOR WITHHOLDING INFORMATION, the message read. SHOW THESE COORDINATES TO MASTER SKYWALKER.

Marr looked at the coordinates; they were for the world of Korriban.

The Cerean grinned maliciously before deleting the coordinates from the 'pad along with the message.

If he had been the real Marr Idi-Shael and not his Iteration, he would have honored Jaden Korr's message of taking these coordinates to Luke Skywalker.

The Iteration of Marr stood up from his quarters' meditation mat and left to grab a quick bite from the Temple's mess hall. Along the way, he passed by Danni Quee; he had no idea that she was only then going down to the archives to get the information for Jacen Solo that might lead the Jedi Order to Korriban anyway.


	23. Chapter 23

Approximately one year before Jacen Solo returned to the known galaxy claiming that Darth Caedus was merely his clone, Jedi apprentice Marr Idi-Shael—the _real_ Marr Idi-Shael—had confronted Jedi Knight Jaden Korr about a secret that he had been withholding from the human.

They had met in the mess hall of Coruscant's Jedi Temple and sat directly from each other in one of the tables. While Jaden was about halfway through his meal, Marr hadn't touched his own.

"Jaden, I have something important to tell you," the Cerean said.

"So I figured," Jaden said seriously after swallowing the last bite of his lunch before setting his palms on either side of the table. "Since you weren't eating, I was wondering what was on your mind. So go on; tell me, Marr."

Marr breathed in deep before letting it all out in a two-second sigh. "You're not in your own body, Jaden."

"Excuse me?"

Marr sighed again. "Remember that mission that took us to that space station in the Unknown Regions when we were tracking down those Jedi-Sith clones with Khedryn?"

"What about it?"

"Your memories had been drained from your body by a clone of yours," Marr explained. "Not the one that we'd been tracking, but another one. But I managed to defeat that clone and used the device that he used to drain your memories and put it into his body, thus placing your consciousness into him. I even managed to disfigure the one I put you in so you wouldn't be suspicious afterwards. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you until now, Jaden."

Jaden sat back and regarded Marr with a look of betrayal. The Cerean, meanwhile, regarded the human with sad regret.

Jaden said nothing before standing up and leaving the mess hall; he left his meal half-finished. Marr had stood up, too, but ultimately decided not to follow his friend; he knew that it would be pointless.

An hour later, Marr had taken a stroll to one of the levels of Coruscant that bordered the Vongformed underworld to be alone with his thoughts. One of those thoughts was whether or not Jaden might be doing the same thing elsewhere on the planet.

But what dominated Marr's thoughts was how his friendship with Jaden would proceed from here. He didn't even think about whether or not his position in the Jedi Order was forfeit; since Marr and Khedryn Faal had gone their separate ways after the former decided to join the Order, the Cerean realized that he would be alone if Jaden didn't forgive him. And he didn't count his Master Katarn for company; Marr knew that he needed someone on more or less equal social standing, even if he and Jaden occupied different levels in the Jedi hierarchy. His experiences with the human in the Unknown Regions saw to a formation of friendship that was different from the one that he had established with Khedryn.

And since Master Katarn was on sabbatical for the next two weeks, Marr was all on his own anyway. Oh, sure, he could still call up his Master; he doubted that Katarn would mind, but Marr didn't want to interrupt his vacation. And besides, Marr didn't want to be chastised for overlooking his reading assignments for Master Katarn (although he understood that he was only giving Marr those assignments because Master Skywalker was making Master Katarn assign them) when he was down here sulking. Marr knew that he could get those assignments on time anyway, but that wasn't the point. The point was that he wanted to be alone now to think things over.

On some level, Marr regretted finally telling Jaden about the deception that he had pulled over him. But on another, he knew that it had to be done; Marr knew that he couldn't go on with a clean conscience as a Jedi if he didn't let Jaden know that he wasn't occupying his original body.

If only he'd told Jaden about this as soon as they escaped that space station in the Unknown Regions...

Marr's train of thought was immediately cut off when his danger sense tingled. He activated his blue-bladed lightsaber in anticipation of attack and stood his ground on the deserted bridge; however, he didn't even know if the threat that he was sensing was even coming toward him.

Indeed, that threat hadn't, for it, or, rather, she, had suddenly appeared off to Marr's left, having flipped onto the bridge as if she had scaled its side, and used the Force to blow the Cerean back to the railing behind him.

The impact his back sustained upon hitting the railing knocked the wind out of Marr, and his lightsaber clattered away from his grip, deactivated. He tried to use the Force to call it back to his hand, but it flew past him when he lost his concentration on it.

And he had lost his concentration because his attacker, a female Togruta, had initiated a Force-choke on him.

"No witnesses," the Togruta intoned. "Perfect opportunity."

Marr soon passed out from the Force-choke.

When he next awakened an indeterminate amount of time later, he was no longer Marr Idi-Shael.

Oh, sure, he had his memories and his body, but his personality was very different, for he also harbored memories of another. The memories that didn't belong to Marr Idi-Shael told this new figure that he was an Iteration of the Cerean, who had been born and raised in a lab on Korriban.

Two days after Idi-Shael's capture, the Cerean's Iteration had been shipped from Korriban to Coruscant via an innocuous cargo ship carrying foodstuffs that somehow passed by spaceport customs without suspicion. Idi-Shael, who had never awakened after he was Force-choked out, was kept under constant sedation by his Togruta captor until his Iteration was delivered to a dingy abandoned apartment complex near the Vongformed underworld

From there, the Togruta used the mindspear that came with Idi-Shael's clone, used it to drain the Iteration of his memories, and then put them back into the clone's source material.

When the Iteration had awakened, the first order he received from the Togruta was to get rid of his previous body. Half an hour later, the body was left at the Vongformed base of the apartment to be picked clean away by scavenger biots.

Not long after that, the Iteration returned to the Jedi Temple to have his first lunch there.

Upon sitting down, he was met by Jaden Korr, who sat across from him with a tray of food just as he previously sat across from the real Marr Idi-Shael two days prior.

"Marr, I've given it some thought," Korr said, "and... I forgive you for withholding this information from me."

The Iteration was about to ask what the Jedi was talking about when he remembered the last conversation that the human had with his Cerean friend. Then, taking on a tone of wonder, the Iteration asked, "You do?"

Korr nodded. "I know that you were just trying to protect me, that you didn't wanna make my world a lot more complicated by telling me that I was in my own clone's body. I appreciate your sensitivity to my feelings, but I still wish you'd have been more upfront about this to me in the first place."

"Well, I'm glad you forgive me, Jaden," the Iteration said with feigned relief.

"However," Korr said, "if you really wanna make it up to me, you gotta do a favor for me."

"Oh, yeah, what's that?"

Korr opened his mouth, only to just as promptly shut it again. "I don't know, but I'll think of something. Just gimme some time."

"I will."

"All right, now let's eat lunch," Korr said with a dumb grin on his face.

"Yes, let's," the Iteration replied before digging in to his own meal.

Little would Korr know how the man he thought to be Marr Idi-Shael would betray him in a very important favor a year later...


	24. Chapter 24

While Danni was collecting the list of historically-known Sith bases and locations from the Jedi Temple's archives, Marr Idi-Shael's Iteration was intercepted in one of the Temple's corridors by his Master, Kyle Katarn, as the Cerean clone was returning to his quarters from his lunch.

"Hi, Marr, glad I caught you," Katarn said. "I'm gonna need you to come with me to Master Skywalker's office."

"May I ask what for?" the Iteration asked.

"Master Skywalker and I just wanna ask you some questions about Jaden," Katarn said as he led the Cerean clone to the nearest turbolift.

"Jaden?" the Iteration asked. "What about him? Did something happen to him? Does it have anything to do with the mission he went on?" The clone hoped that neither Skywalker nor Katarn had figured out that he had deleted that message that Korr, as it seemed, had sent him.

"You'll see," Katarn said as the turbolift that was now before them opened up. He and the Iteration stepped inside and waited as the elevator took them to the level that contained Skywalker's office.

As the Iteration and Katarn waited, the former continued to wonder whether or not his cover was blown. He had thought that when he deleted that message that Korr (or, as he assumed, his Iteration testing him) sent him that contained Korriban's hyperspace coordinates, no one in the Jedi Temple could have known.

Perhaps, instead of going to lunch immediately after, he should have contacted Lord Wyyrlok to follow up on his deletion of that message.

Of course, while Katarn was a man who guarded his presence well in the Force, the Iteration couldn't sense a hint of the wariness or mild suspicion that his false Master usually had around him.

Ever since Katarn had come back from that sabbatical of his less than a year before, not knowing that Marr Idi-Shael was dead and had been replaced by his Iteration, he had become much more reserved in both his external interactions with his apparent apprentice and even in his Force-interactions. But the Iteration had never given Katarn any solid reason for suspicion; he acted like his source material and did everything in his power to radiate the same Force-presence that the real Idi-Shael had.

Still, Katarn had remained suspicious.

And it was that suspicion, as the Iteration believed, that he had been sent away from his false Master. Weeks ago, Katarn had assigned him to join the relief effort on the planet Qiilura, where the native shape-shifting Gurlanins were to be aided in resettling certain territories that had suffered Vongforming. Katarn told the Iteration that he wanted to see how he would handle the situation on his own, without the aid of his Jedi Master, and he would determine his success or failure based on what he heard and saw on the news. If Katarn liked what he saw, then he would consider whether or not the man he believed to be Marr Idi-Shael was ready to begin the trials to become a Knight.

However, the Iteration had a feeling that the real reason that he had been sent away was because Katarn wanted some time away from his false apprentice, as if he were unconsciously reacting to the underlying darkness lurking in the Iteration.

Again, the Iteration of Marr Idi-Shael hoped that Katarn's suspicions didn't lead him to the truth.

"Here we are," Katarn said as the turbolift doors opened before them. "After you."

The Iteration departed the elevator at Katarn's wave, and then allowed his false Master to lead him toward and then into Skywalker's office.

"Ah, Kyle, Apprentice Idi-Shael," Skywalker said as he waved the two of them into his office's guest seats. "Please, sit down."

Once Katarn and the Iteration were seated, Skywalker said, "I understand, Apprentice Idi-Shael—may I call you Marr?"

"Of course, you can, Master Skywalker," the Iteration answered in a disgustingly agreeable tone.

"Marr, I understand that you had returned from Qiilura just yesterday," Skywalker said. "Master Katarn has told me that you were successful in helping the Gurlanins resettle into what was previously Vongformed territory. He told me that he is considering you to start the trials for Knighthood."

The Iteration nodded, again agreeably. "As he has told me." As repulsed as he was to have been helping the Gurlanins on Qiilura, he had no choice but to have kept up his facade as a loyal Jedi in Skywalker's Order. "Still, in spite of my success with the Gurlanins, I do wish I had been here to have seen you depart for your exile from Coruscant." He corrected himself quickly. "Not because I thought it was good that you were leaving, Master Skywalker, it's just that-"

Skywalker chuckled. "I understand, Marr. You wanted to pay your respects."

The Iteration mirrored Skywalker's chuckle. "Of course. Exactly. Then again, with the sudden return of Jacen Solo spoiling everything..." The clone shut up, as he realized that with that last sentence, he had cast an awkward mood among the two humans with him.

After a moment, it was Katarn who spoke. "You agree with Master Skywalker that this is the real Jacen Solo, Marr?"

The Iteration shrugged in as nonchalant manner as he could manage. "If Master Skywalker believes it to be so, who am I to question him?"

Katarn tilted his head at the Iteration. "Indeed."

"Marr," Skywalker interjected, obviously changing the subject so that the awkwardness wouldn't wallow, "I want to show you this." He then played a holorecording of his last conversation with Korr over his desk.

Once the recording stopped, Skywalker said, "I already showed Master Katarn this recording, Marr. He has agreed with me that there is something suspicious about Jaden's behavior. Would you agree, too?"

The Idi-Shael Iteration prevented himself from scowling. He had no choice but to say, "Yes, Master Skywalker. I know Jaden. He wouldn't be this hostile."

The clone knew that if he had disagreed with Skywalker and Katarn, it would have led down the road to his cover being blown before he ever left this room. Of course, that, in turn, meant that he had to also jeopardize the Jaden Korr Iteration's cover.

If only that Iteration hadn't been so stupid with how he approached his transmission with Skywalker. Lord Wyyrlok had told the Idi-Shael Iteration in their last secured hypercomm conversation about the Korr Iteration being activated and implanted with the real Korr's memories; thus, the Idi-Shael Iteration was to expect him to be another infiltrator in the Jedi Order.

That was why the Idi-Shael Iteration deleted that message; he thought that it was the Korr Iteration testing him, to make sure that he was someone he could trust as a spy in this abhorrent Order of the light side of the Force. It was also the only thing he could do since he couldn't respond directly back; the source of the transmission couldn't be traced back. This only made the Idi-Shael Iteration believe further that the Korr Iteration was testing him; if the Idi-Shael Iteration was not to be believed, then at least the Korr Iteration couldn't be traced back.

"Then something is going on," Skywalker said. "Kyle, I want you to take Marr here and go to Jaden's last known coordinates. I'm gonna see to Jacen if he and Danni have got any insight into where this Sith organization can be."

"Wait, wait, wait," the Idi-Shael Iteration said. "Jacen and Danni, Danni Quee I assume, are doing some research into this Sith organization that your nephew claims to exist, Master Skywalker? Into where they could be, I mean?"

"Yes, Marr, they are," Skywalker confirmed.

"I see," the Iteration said. "Thank you for elucidating, Master Skywalker."

As the two Jedi and undercover Sith clone left the Grand Master's office, the Iteration mentally kicked himself for not knowing that that woman who had been seen with Jacen Solo was up to something when he had passed by her earlier.

. . .

Javis Tyrr entered Galactic Alliance Security Captain Oric Harfard's office. The captain, seated behind his desk, said, "This had better be worth my time, Tyrr."

"I assure you, Captain Harfard, it will be," Tyrr said in an eager tone. He set his holoprojector down onto Harfard's desk and pressed a button to play the footage that had been recorded.

From the footage, Harfard was looking through a window outside the Jedi Temple to a corridor on the inside. He observed a Whiphid and a Togruta walking together before they suddenly seized up for a few seconds. They then ran a few steps forward toward a door before they just as suddenly halted in their hurried progress. Both aliens then resumed their leisurely pace across the corridor as if nothing happened. Tyrr then turned the footage off.

"Strange behavior, don't you think, Captain?" the reporter asked.

"Indeed," Harfard replied, his tone carrying more intrigue than skepticism. "You understand that I would have to run this footage by through a neutral third party to make sure that what you just showed me wasn't doctored, right?"

"By all means," Tyrr replied with a formal bow. "Of course, why would I doctor footage like this? It doesn't exactly scream weird like Valin Horn going on a rampage or Jacen Solo, if that was him, leaping across rooftops before saying to the galaxy that Darth Caedus was a clone of him."

"No, but what this footage shows is still peculiar," Harfard said. "Peculiar enough for me to follow up on, admittedly. So let's put aside the question of this footage's veracity, Mr. Tyrr, and let's pretend that I absolutely believe that you're telling me the truth and not trying to discredit the Jedi for your own personal interests."

"Oh, come on, Captain Harfard, I'm a man of integrity!" Tyrr said playfully. "My only interest is in showing the galaxy the truth!"

Harfard raised an eyebrow. "While what these two Jedi did was unusual and even erratic, I somehow doubt that it can't be explained away by Luke Skywalker or some other Jedi representative."

"But it will cast the necessary doubt on the Jedi Order," Tyrr said. "Because of the events surrounding Valin Horn and this supposed Jacen Solo, the public has a right to know what's really going on in the Jedi Order! If there's something going on with them that isn't right, that poses a public danger like Horn, it'd be highly unethical to not bring it to the light!"

Harfard considered Tyrr's words carefully. "I agree with every word you said, Mr. Tyrr," Harfard said. "However, before I consider any action from this, I must ask you: what do you think was going on in the footage?"

"Oh, Captain, conjecture can be a poisonous thing in journalism," Tyrr said. "An honest reporter like myself wouldn't want to come to the wrong conclu-"

"Spare me any platitudes you have about journalistic integrity, Tyrr," Harfard said sharply. "Tell me what you think was going on in the footage."

Tyrr hesitated in his response. "What does it matter what I think?"

"Because I wanna know how you're gonna be able to counter whatever explanations any Jedi representative will say about what was going on in that footage," Harfard said. "So out with it."

Tyrr took a moment to respond. "Honestly, Captain? I think it's some kind of Jedi illusion. Not when those two Jedi were running to that door, but the part where they suddenly started walking again."

"They used their powers to cover up something?" Harfard suggested.

"Why else would they put up an illusion?"

"Which begs the question of what exactly they're hiding." Harfard placed a finger to his chin in thought for a moment. "Mr. Tyrr, before you release this footage to the public, would you mind taking on an assignment on behalf of Galactic Alliance Security?"

Tyrr sat down in one of the two guest chairs in Harfard's office. "I'm listening."


	25. Chapter 25

In the privacy of his bedchamber, Darth Krayt meditated, channeling his usage of the dark side of the Force within himself to gather strength for what lay ahead. It was easier that his rage simmered in the core of his being, as he allowed the anger that he felt at Jacen Solo's announcement to the galaxy of a secret Sith organization existing and the near-disaster surrounding Jaden Korr to act as the metaphorical kindling to the fire that was his growing power.

Because throughout all of the recent ruckus caused by those events, Abeloth never left his thoughts.

After several minutes of meditation, Krayt was snapped out of his meditation when he sensed the arrival of several dark and unfamiliar presences in the Horuset system, as well as the return of one presence with whom he was familiar. Predictably, his personal commlink beeped next to him on his mat; he answered it.

"My Lord, the Iteration of Jaden Korr has returned already," Lord Wyyrlok informed Krayt in a worried tone. "And... he has brought some guests with him. W-would you like to speak to their leader?"

"Yes, I would, Lord Wyyrlok," Krayt said as evenly as he could. He would reserve his anger for the Korr Iteration the first chance he had to speak to him; and personally, at that. "I will take it at my personal holocomm terminal."

"Very well, I will have the communication patched through to the terminal, My Lord," Wyyrlok said. "Will that be all?"

"For now," Krayt said before signing off from the commlink.

Once Krayt was seated at his holocomm terminal, it didn't take long for him to begin speaking to the blue-tinted holographic representation of an elegant-looking woman.

"Identity yourself," Krayt demanded.

"You _are_ in charge," the woman replied in a sultry tone. "I like a man who takes charge."

Krayt stifled his anger at the woman's tone; while she didn't hurl any insults his way, her tone reminded him too much of how Vergere's spirit spoke to him.

"Answer my question," Krayt said, his demanding tone holding.

"Very well," the woman said, her voice now taking on a more diplomatic tone. "I am Lady Olaris Rhea of the Lost Tribe of the Sith and commander of the _Eternal Crusader_, the warship that currently orbits your planet. We were guided here by, what was it? Ah, yes, the Iteration of a Jedi Knight named Jaden Korr. He was very trusting of us."

"Of that, I have determined," Krayt said. "I must speak to him now."

"Oh, but, Lord Krayt, you're being quite rude," Rhea said in a tone that indicated that she didn't take that much offense at the rudeness of the One Sith's ruler. "I would have expected you to have first invited me and my crew down to your Temple as guests."

Krayt once again stifled his rage; not only did the Korr Iteration reveal the location of the One Sith's base to this Lost Tribe, not only did he bring a warship in orbit of his world that may have the capacity to destroy everything on it, but he had even told this Lost Tribe, if not just Rhea, Krayt's name! Even if this Lost Tribe did prove to be trustworthy enough to be inducted into the ranks of the One Sith, there was no way that Krayt _wasn't_ going to personally execute the Korr Iteration for his gullibility, if not outright stupidity, for trusting these strangers so easily.

He calmed himself long enough to ask, "I... _apologize_, Lady Rhea, for my rudeness. I will take mind to be much more accommodating towards you and your crew when you join us. Will you be bringing all of the members of your crew to our Temple?"

Rhea shook her head. "Somebody's got to continue to man the _Crusader_, Lord Krayt, so no. I will only be bringing down three members of my crew with me."

"I want... would you be so kind as to bring the Iteration of Jaden Korr with you, too?" Krayt asked. Then, after a moment's pause, he asked, "Please?"

Rhea nodded politely, as if that were reward for Krayt's forced civility. "I would be delighted to. I will shuttle down with my three crew members and the Iteration to your Temple immediately, Lord Krayt. Farewell until then." She signed off.

Then Krayt swiveled around in his chair in response to the spirit of Vergere guffawing.

"Oh, dear, that was funny!" the dead Fosh laughed. "Watching you kowtow to a lesser Sith because she had the potential to blast your precious Sith Temple to smithereens! My oh my, I wonder if the punishment you will wreak on that clone will be enough to salve the bruise to your ego!" She continued to laugh.

Krayt simply ignored her and walked out of his quarters; Vergere didn't follow him.

Not much later, he, Wyyrlok, and a few other members of the One Sith saw to the touchdown of the Lost Tribe shuttle in the Sith Temple's landing bay.

After formal introductions were made, in which Krayt and his retinue were introduced to Vestara Khai, Yuvar Xal, and Ahri Raas, Krayt was the one to ask, "Lady Rhea, before you speak to me about whatever it was that you wanted to speak to me about when you landed here, I wish to have a word with the Iteration here." The Korr Iteration was standing between Rhea and Khai.

"I hope it will not take too long," Rhea said in a diplomatic tone.

"As a matter of fact," Krayt said, "I might need at least half an hour with him."

Krayt and Rhea held onto their wordless, daring gazes at each other before the latter spoke. "I will allow it," she said, her tone of civility now taking on a dark undercurrent that was more worthy of a Sith.

Krayt nodded at Rhea before looking at his Chagrian right-hand man. "Lord Wyyrlok, please see to it that Lady Rhea and her retinue are entertained while I speak to the Iteration. Take them on a tour of the Temple."

"Yes, My Lord," Wyyrlok replied obediently.

Krayt paid neither his retinue nor Rhea's anymore mind as he guided the Iteration of Jaden Korr to his own quarters.

There, once Krayt had the Iteration in the living area just as he had Cay'lun not too long before, the clone, not realizing the danger posed to him thanks to Krayt masking his own intentions from him, began to speak.

"My Lord, there is something I must tell you," the Iteration said quickly. "It is-"

Whatever he had to say was cut off by the screams he then emitted as Krayt brought the Iteration to his back thanks to the Force-lightning that he was pouring onto the clone.

"YOU DARE BRING THESE OUTSIDERS TO OUR HOME WITHOUT MY PRIOR KNOWLEDGE?!" Krayt yowled. "YOUR STUPIDITY COULD BE THE END OF US!"

"But, My Lord!" the Iteration howled. But again, he could only scream as Krayt intensified the energy that his fingers unleashed upon the clone.

Then, after what must have been two minutes of unceasing electric flow upon the Iteration, Krayt, even through the energy that he was giving, saw the pain in his victim's eyes change into determination.

And once those determined eyes were locked upon Krayt, the Sith Master realized that he was no longer looking into the eyes of the Iteration of Jaden Korr.

He was looking into Jaden Korr's eyes.

In spite of the pain wracking his body, Korr brought up his right hand and unleashed a torrent of green energy that mingled with Krayt's blue lightning. The green lightning won out, reaching Krayt and blasting him back across the room, where his back hit the wall behind him and he collapsed prone to the floor.

But a second later, he had pushed himself back up to his feet, standing a little over a dozen meters away from the Jedi, who was also on his feet.

Korr then brought up the lightsaber from his belt that Krayt had given his Iteration earlier and activated its red blade. It didn't seem to bother him what color it was.

"Your move, Sith," Korr intoned.

But instead of making any hostile moves, Krayt clapped.

The Sith Master reveled in the confusion on the Jedi's cloned face.

"Amazing, Jedi," Krayt commended before he stopped clapping. "You managed to overcome the dominant personality of that body. I have been told that as soon as your memories were drained from your previous body because of the mindspear I used, you would be dead. But it is apparent that you are very much alive. So, tell me, how did you survive the transfer?"

"Why should I answer any of your questions?" Korr asked after a moment's hesitation.

"Why should you deny me the satiation of my curiosity?" Krayt asked as he carefully approached Korr.

"Stay back," Korr said, leveling up the Sith lightsaber. It did nothing to deter Krayt from coming any closer.

The Sith Master shrugged in response to Korr's implied threat. "If you are so confident that you will kill me, then what harm is there in telling me how you are still alive?"

"How about delaying me?" Korr retorted. "So you can have your Sith lackeys come in and take me down."

"Is that what you are so worried about?" Krayt asked before stopping a few meters from Korr. "Once they come in, I can easily command them to stay back. And after you have told me how you survived, then we may have a fair, one-on-one fight."

"As if I can trust you," Korr said. "And besides, it wouldn't do for your henchmen to help you; I've taken on multiple enemies before, and I can do it again."

"In that case, all the more reason to call my subordinates off when they arrive," Krayt said. "I want you all to myself. So, please, tell me how you still live, Jedi."

"You really wanna know?" Korr asked.

Krayt nodded.

"Then I guess... you'll have to find out in the afterlife!"

Korr quickly lunged forward to impale Krayt, but the latter already had his lightsaber out and active to block the blow. The Sith Master then stood his ground as he expertly batted and parried away Korr's vicious yet expert strikes and feints; it was as if he was a statue with moving arms that commanded a lightsaber blade at nearly the speed of light.

Soon, the door to Krayt's quarters opened, allowing Wyyrlok, the One Sith members who were with him and Krayt in the hangar bay, and Rhea and her retinue to enter.

Even in spite of the concentration that he was maintaining in his duel with Korr, Krayt was still able to empathically commune the idea of staying back to Wyyrlok.

"Keep away!" Wyyrlok conveyed to the rest of the Sith in the room. "My Lord wants this!"

Five minutes passed. And Krayt still did not yield a centimeter to Korr.

Apparently, the Sith Master really was gaining power; he doubted that he would need to enter stasis after this. Perhaps he could be ready to face Abeloth, maybe even alone...

"You are skilled and powerful, Jaden Korr," Krayt said. "However, you..."

He then finally disarmed Korr, cutting the Jedi's Sith lightsaber into pieces before headbutting the man.

"...are not..."

Krayt punched Korr in the chest, sending him flying back to the wall behind him. He collapsed prone to the floor.

"...either your Master, Kyle Katarn, nor..."

Krayt then used the Force to pin Korr to the wall that he had bounded off of.

"...are you..."

He then sank his blade into Korr's shoulder, producing an ear-piercing shriek from the Jedi.

"...Luke Skywalker."

Krayt then cleaved Korr's arm off by the shoulder before allowing the Jedi to sink to the ground on his hindquarters, seething from the burning pain.

"Now," Krayt said before deactivating and hooking his lightsaber back to his belt, "time to have my question answered."

He then bent down, placed both hands on either side of Korr's head, and then performed the Force-technique that Garis Boric taught him all those years ago that allowed him to extract Jacen Solo's memories from his head.

It was there that Krayt found his answer. Apparently, when Korr had been transferred from his first body to the body of his first Iteration thanks to Marr Idi-Shael, an unnamed Force effect had taken place that somehow allowed Korr to survive any subsequent mindspear transfers. Krayt was able to identity that it was a Force-effect just by the fact that he felt that the Force was there in that first event.

It was as if Korr had been immunized from mindspear transfers, for lack of a better metaphor.

When Krayt was done mind-melding with Korr, he grinned down at the wheezing Jedi.

"Such a shame," Krayt said maliciously, "that Marr never had a chance to survive his own mindspear transfer."

The look of shock and horror in Korr's eyes would be something that would forever be imprinted into Krayt's mind as one of the most delicious things that he had ever seen.

Then Krayt, with his hand rather than the Force, lifted Korr up by his neck and then impaled him along each of the sharp Yuuzhan Vong growths across his body. Krayt even threw in some punches and kicks just to add to Korr's dying punishment.

When he was finally done with the Jedi, he allowed his bloodied and beaten corpse to slide back down along the wall.

"Try coming back from that," Krayt said aloud.

He turned away and looked at Wyyrlok. "See that is all cleaned up."

"Yes, My Lord," Wyyrlok replied obediently.

Krayt then turned his attention to Lady Rhea. He could tell by the fear in her eyes from what she had just seen that he was now in control of the situation; whatever control she had before was gone now.

"So, Lady Rhea," Krayt said victoriously, "what was it that you wished to speak of?"


	26. Chapter 26

Right before Lord Krayt was to have his private meeting with Lady Rhea, the last thing that he told Darth Wyyrlok was, "Somehow, Korr had survived the mindspear transfer. See to it that the Iteration of Marr Idi-Shael is very much himself."

Once Wyyrlok was left alone in his own quarters, he tried to open up a holocomm transmission with the Idi-Shael Iteration on Coruscant. After several moments, he only received a response from the clone's answering machine, explaining that he was not near his holocomm transmitter but that a message can be left. Wyyrlok immediately shut off the communication before his face could be recorded and then placed a hand under his chin in thought.

When he was coming here after Krayt sent him to see to the Idi-Shael Iteration, he initially didn't share his Master's concerns as to whether or not the Cerean clone could somehow be carrying the consciousness of his source material like Jaden Korr's Iteration. But now there was this mystery as to why the Idi-Shael Iteration wasn't responding; if he had to be gone anywhere for an extended period of time like when he had to be on Qiilura, he would have told Wyyrlok. And even if the Cerean clone was elsewhere in the Jedi Temple, such as getting something to eat from its mess hall, he could have sent an emergency beep from his personal commlink that would have sent a carrier wave directly to his holocomm terminal; this would have indicated to Wyyrlok that his agent would have been coming.

But that emergency beep never came before the answering machine nearly recorded Wyyrlok's face.

Since the Idi-Shael Iteration wasn't responding, Wyyrlok decided to contact the clone's handler on Coruscant, the Togruta who first brought the clone over from Korriban.

Once he was in contact with the Togruta, Wyyrlok asked, "Do you know where he could be?"

"Ah, yes, Lord Wyyrlok," the Togruta said. "I was just about to contact you about it."

"How convenient for you then," Wyyrlok remarked wryly. "Where is he?"

"He just left Coruscant less than an hour ago," the Togruta replied, "with Kyle Katarn... and Luke Skywalker. They had left via Skywalker's ship, the _Jade Shadow_."

"Skywalker himself has left Coruscant?" Wyyrlok asked in disbelief. "After he managed to have his exile from the planet reneged? Do you know why?"

The Togruta shook her head. "Unfortunately, Lord Wyyrlok, I have to admit I'm not that good. The Idi-Shael Iteration hasn't been able to contact me about why he was leaving; he didn't have time."

"Damn it!" Wyyrlok cursed as he punched the wall next to his holoterminal.

"Lord Wyyrlok, I'm terribly sorry for-"

"Have you noticed anything odd about the Idi-Shael Iteration?" Wyyrlok asked.

"Odd, Lord Wyyrlok?" the Togruta inquired.

"Has he demonstrated any odd behavior around you or seemed strange to you through your reading of him through the Force?" Wyyrlok elaborated. "As if he might not be himself?"

The Togruta shrugged. "Not to my senses, not in all the time he's been my charge."

"There's no hint of whether or not his source material is still alive within him?"

The Togruta looked concerned. "None at all. What's going on, Lord Wyyrlok?"

Wyyrlok shook his head. "I can't talk about it right now; maybe not ever. You let me know as soon as you can if and when the Iteration returns to Coruscant."

The Togruta nodded. "I will."

Wyyrlok then signed off from the communication before sitting back in his chair. He put the palms of his hands against his face in frustration. While his fears had been assuaged as to whether or not the Idi-Shael Iteration had the consciousness of the real Marr Idi-Shael, he now had a new fear to replace it; if both Luke Skywalker and Kyle Katarn had left Coruscant with the Idi-Shael Iteration, it wasn't pointing to anything good for the One Sith.

If either or both of those Jedi Masters were to find out about the true nature of the Cerean Jedi apprentice, it could possibly spell the end of the organization that Wyyrlok dedicated his life to.

Still, it could be worse; at least Jaden Korr's Iteration hadn't been informed about the Idi-Shael Iteration before he departed Korriban for Coruscant. If Korr had any chance to emerge from the control that his Iteration had over the body that they unwillingly shared prior to his death, he could have possibly sent out a transmission to the Jedi on Coruscant explaining the presence of the Idi-Shael Iteration; that is, if had he been told.

The reason that the Korr Iteration, and, by extension, Korr himself, had never been told about the Idi-Shael Iteration, or any of the other One Sith infiltrators in the Jedi Order, before he left Korriban was because of a certain protocol.

While preexisting infiltrators in the Jedi Order were informed of any and all incoming infiltrators, the incoming infiltrators went in believing, at first, that they were alone; they weren't even told that there were other infiltrators, let alone who they were. The grounds for this deliberate withholding of information was based in the fact that if an incoming infiltrator were to have somehow already been discovered and caught by the Jedi, their genuine ignorance, rather than loyalty to the One Sith, could at least spare the covers of the preexisting infiltrators. But while the preexisting infiltrators also posed a risk to their colleagues' covers, it was expected of them to be less likely to make any mistakes as a new arrival; and it was also expected that they would have developed a dying loyalty to the One Sith that a new arrival was far less likely to have.

Every agent, new and experienced, was given a cyanide pill (or a pill releasing another deadly poison into the agent's system if they were of a species that was immune to cyanide) that was implanted in a false tooth that could be easily broken if the agent were caught. But new arrivals did have less expectancy to use those pills, even if their loyalty was unquestioned by their immediate superiors or even by Darth Krayt himself.

Then, once it was firmly established that the new infiltrator's cover was safely entrenched in the Jedi Order, only then would the other preexisting infiltrators approach their new comrade and inform them, at discrete times and locations, that they were not alone.

It was necessary at some point for all of the infiltrators, new and old, to know about each other so that they wouldn't accidentally interfere in their respective operations. The only reason that the preexisting infiltrators were informed of a new arrival, like the Idi-Shael Iteration was of the would-be arrival of the Korr Iteration, was so that they could make the necessary arrangements to make sure that whatever they had going on in their assignments wouldn't be accidentally halted by the new arrival.

So, after determining that Korr couldn't have compromised the Idi-Shael Iteration's identity, that left one thing for him to do: to find out if he had sent a message at all to the Jedi Order about Korriban.

He left his quarters and went to the room where Lady Rhea's three companions were being kept while their commander was in talks with Lord Krayt. Once there, Yuvar Xal, Vestara Khai, and Ahri Raas all stood up in suspicion.

Wyyrlok pointed to Xal. "The starfighter that you found out agent in," he said without preamble. "Where is it?"

"Until Lady Rhea comes to an agreement with your Lord Krayt-" Xal began.

"It's in the hangar bay of our warship," Khai interrupted.

Xal gave her a look of utter malice.

"I need to get there," Wyyrlok said, drawing Xal's attention back to him. "I need to find out if the Jedi consciousness in the agent managed to send any kind of damning message to the Order." He waved Xal off. "And don't try to get me with getting approval from your Lady Rhea. If there's any threat to the One Sith from the Jedi, your lives would be forfeit, too. So I'm sure your commander wouldn't mind if you went behind your back." Truthfully, Wyyrlok didn't care what happened to this Lost Tribe of the Sith; in fact, he kind of hoped that they would die, but that was beside the point.

Xal held Wyyrlok's gaze for an uncomfortably long time before finally sighing in defeat. "Very well. I will approve of your arrival to the _Eternal Crusader_."

Later, once Wyyrlok had shuttled up to the Lost Tribe warship and set foot in the hangar bay, he Force-leaped up to the still-open canopy of Jaden Korr's starfighter. His R6 had been shut off, possibly as a precaution by the Lost Tribe crew; Wyyrlok decapitated the astromech droid with a swipe of his lightsaber just for good measure.

If Krayt got to have Korr, Wyyrlok got to have Korr's astromech.

With that out of the way, Wyyrlok sat himself down in the starfighter's cockpit and went through any incoming and outgoing messages that were recorded.

Indeed, he found a message that had been sent to Marr Idi-Shael, indicating to the Cerean that he should tell someone in the Jedi Order about the secrets that Korriban currently kept.

Wyyrlok grinned. So the One Sith hadn't been compromised by Korr. But, still, with the Idi-Shael Iteration having departed from Coruscant with Luke Skywalker and Kyle Katarn...

. . .

As the _Jade Shadow_ cruised through hyperspace, Luke was sitting in the ship's pilot seat when he heard Kyle scream from the galley. The Grand Master quickly stood up and rushed out of the cockpit to see to his friend.

"Kyle, what's wrong?" Luke asked once he reached the galley. He had placed a hand on Kyle's shoulder as the latter had been leaning against the table that was before him; a plate of food had been spilled onto the deck, but Luke would worry about that later.

"It's Jaden, Luke!" Kyle said, looking at the Grand Master with sorrow in his eyes. "He's dead! I felt his life go out!"

Luke didn't know what to say; yes, he had lost apprentices before, but he knew that the bond between Kyle and Jaden had been solidified by nearly three decades. He wasn't sure if there was anything that could be said by him that could console Kyle's grief.

But then, he knew, just as Kyle did, that whatever took Jaden's life had to be addressed before any formal grieving processes could begin.

And it surprisingly didn't take long for Kyle to do that. Within seconds, his sorrowful look changed to one of determination.

"But right before he died," Kyle said, "he left me with a message through the Force; it felt clear to me, even though I only got a distinct impression."

"What was the message?"

"That Marr... isn't who he seems to be."

Luke and Kyle then turned to where they sensed Marr; he was standing right at the entrance/exit of the galley, looking back at the Jedi Masters with a blank expression.

They stood there, the two Masters and the apparent Jedi apprentice looking at each other, for about ten seconds before Marr made a move.

He quickly unhooked and activated his lightsaber, only for Kyle to Force-swat the weapon out of the Cerean's hand, as if he had batted a toy out of a child's hand. As Marr's lightsaber clattered away deactivated, Kyle then used the Force again to trip Marr to the floor on his back, and then pulled him in, as if an invisible lasso had been tied around the alien's ankles.

Once Marr had been brought over to the Masters, Kyle placed a boot on the traitor's chest and pinned him there.

"Who are you?" Kyle intoned. "Really?"

Marr, or whoever he was, struggled vainly under the boot. Even his attempt at trying to push Kyle off using the Force was easily thwarted by the Master telekinetically pinning both of the Cerean's arms against the deck at either side.

"I'm a Jedi Master," Kyle stated. "You can't overpower me. So tell us the truth."

After a few more seconds of futile resistance, the Cerean sneered. "Or what? You Jedi don't have the interrogation methods to break me. You're too soft!"

Kyle increased the pressure to both his captive's chest and arms, prompting a pained moan from the man claiming to be Marr Idi-Shael.

"That too soft for ya?" Kyle retorted.

Once the pressures were relieved somewhat, Marr gave a wheezing chuckle as he looked to Luke. "You approve of this?" His tone was mocking, as if he were exposing Luke of some kind of hypocrisy.

"I trust Master Katarn to make the decisions that he thinks are the correct ones," Luke replied evenly.

"Just as my Master..." Marr then made a motion with his mouth that first produced a cracking sound before it produced a foam. "...expects me to."

Both Luke and Kyle's eyes widened at the sight of the foam; the latter released his hold on Marr as he and Luke hurriedly knelt down to try to remove the poison from their captive's mouth.

But it was too late; the Cerean's eyes rolled back into his head, and he was no more.


	27. Chapter 27

Not long after Luke had stopped by to receive Jacen's input about the secret Sith organization being on Korriban, Danni left Jacen alone in her quarters while she went to get them some lunch. When she returned with a tray of bantha steaks for the both of them, and some juice to wash the food down, Jacen looked at the food hungrily as Danni set it down at the dining table.

As they started eating, Danni asked, "So, while I was gone, did you have any ideas to go behind your uncle's back to leave this room?" She said this around a mouthful of steak.

"As a matter of fact, I have," Jacen said just as bluntly after swallowing his own mouthful. "While you were getting this steak, I think I discovered the reason for why the Aing-Tii teleportation method didn't work."

"Oh, yeah, why's that?" Danni inquired before taking a sip of juice.

"Before you left to check the Temple archives for possible Sith locations," Jacen began, "I felt something occur within my mind that was highly unusual. It didn't hurt, nor was it exactly pleasant either. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the best that I can compare it to is a click."

"A click?"

Jacen nodded. "Then, once this 'click' occurred, I was suddenly reminded of the issue of why the Aing-Tii teleportation method didn't work when I last tried it. So I tried it again. And guess what? I teleported."

Danni's eyes widened in surprise. "Where'd you teleport?"

"Honestly? From that end of the room-" he pointed to the area behind him "-to that end of the room." He pointed behind Danni.

"So what'd you conclude from that experience?" Danni asked before she took another bite.

"I think it's a cool-down period," Jacen said. "I can do the Aing-Tii teleportation method, but I can only just do it every now and then. I estimate after every half hour or so."

"And you didn't tell me this when I came back with the Sith locations because you were more preoccupied with determining where the Sith could be," Danni said with a nod. "You think you're ready to try it again now?"

Jacen nodded before swallowing his next bite of steak and standing up. He headed to his end of the room, where he closed his eyes. A second later, he disappeared.

Danni turned around in her seat to find him reappear at the other end of the room.

"Now I gotta wait about half an hour before I can do that again," Jacen said neutrally. "I hope I can find a way to get rid of this cool-down period so I can do this more easily; like using the Force in general." He was heading back to his seat as he spoke that last sentence.

"You could return to the Aing-Tii," Danni pointed out as Jacen resumed his seat. "See if you can get more training out of them."

"Good idea," Jacen agreed, "after we've taken down the Sith first." He continued eating his meal.

A silent moment passed between Jacen and Danni before the latter asked, "Are you okay?"

Jacen looked at her in askance. "Of course I am. Why do you ask?"

"Because I think you might need to have a talk with your family," Danni said.

Jacen put down the fork and knife with which he was using to eat his bantha steak. He didn't say a word as he looked at Danni with a passive stare.

"You're gonna have to do it sooner or later," Danni pointed out as she also set her utensils down.

Jacen took a moment to respond. "You didn't see the look in Jaina's eyes when she attacked me," he said in a sorrowful tone. "She may be following Uncle Luke's orders like everyone else here to leave me alone, but I know that she still believes I'm Darth Caedus. I may not be able to sense her presence in the Force anymore than she's able to sense me, but I know that's what she thinks."

"You don't think there's any way to convince her otherwise?" Danni asked.

"I know Jaina," Jacen stated. "She's stubborn like our dad. It'd have to take a lot to convince her I'm not who she thinks I am."

"Then maybe you should put in a lot," Danni said.

"Easier said than done," Jacen countered, "especially since the fact that we can't sense each other is a big impediment of convincing her of who I really am. You see, Danni, my twin bond with Jaina has been a core defining element in our relationship; with that cut off, I'm guaranteed not to make any progress with her. You might as well ask me to single-handedly turn a star into a black hole with my powers."

"If you think that's what it's gonna take," Danni said, "then that's what we have to find out. And then we have to put our findings into practice."

Jacen chuckled ruefully. "It isn't so simple, Danni. Jaina herself pretty much killed whatever chance we have of reestablishing our connection when she killed Darth Caedus."

"That's what you believe, Jacen. There's no real proof that's the case."

"What other explanation can there be? No one in my family can sense me."

Danni tilted her head in thought. "Well, even assuming that what you think is true, shouldn't you make some effort with your family to reestablish your connection with them? Even if you can never sense each other again?"

Jacen looked at Danni as if she had just eaten some bantha dung instead of bantha steak. "Danni, all my life, I've felt the presences of my family through the Force. Even my dad, who isn't even Force-sensitive. If I can't reestablish my sense of them through the Force, I have no hope of reconnecting to them on any other level."

"Then maybe you shouldn't worry so much about reconnecting to them through the Force," Danni suggested. "Maybe you should first reconnect to them on an emotional level. Maybe it can even help you reconnect to them through the Force, too."

Jacen sat back in contemplation for a moment. "Now, you see, Danni, right there is belief without proof. You have no idea if that can work anymore than me."

"You think it might hurt to try?" Danni asked.

"Honestly? Yes. I do think it might hurt to try."

"Why, because you think Jaina might try to kill you again, in spite of what your uncle told everyone?"

Jacen shook his head.

"Then what?"

"Forget it, Danni, I don't wanna talk about this anymore," Jacen said, not looking at her.

"Why not?"

"I just don't, okay?"

"Don't try to avoid the issue, Jacen. Say it. Say why you don't wanna do this."

"Danni, please, stop."

"No, I won't. Not until you tell me-"

"Danni, please."

"No, don't 'Danni, please' me. I'm not gonna leave you alone until you-"

Jacen banged a fist on the table, abruptly stood up, and leered angrily down at Danni. She, in turn, returned his stare with a blank, neutral expression.

They stared at each other for several seconds before Danni saw that tears were starting to form in Jacen's eyes. He was the one who broke away and headed to his room without another word.

Danni remained in her seat for another five seconds before dabbing her mouth with a napkin. She then stood up and headed for the exit to her quarters. She then pressed the button that opened the door.

Sitting next to the door with her legs curled up to her chest was Jaina, her eyes red-rimmed with tears. She looked up at the blonde woman, not even bothering to hide her sadness.

"I sensed your presence outside the door when I asked Jacen if he was okay," Danni elaborated as she moved to sit down next to Jaina.

Jaina's mouth dropped even before Danni sat herself next to her. "You did that on purpose, didn't you? Why, Danni?"

"I may not have seen the look in your eyes when you were duelling Jacen here earlier," Danni said, "but I still saw the way you fought. And I heard what Jacen was saying even over the clashes of your blades. He's right about you, Jaina; you are stubborn. It would take a lot to convince you that something you believed wasn't so, regardless of the truth. So I figured you needed to hear what he said to me; you might not have believed anything he would have said to you. Because I find it hard to believe that even you can just disregard everything that was just said in that room as a fiction."

"Yeah, well, guess what? I still don't believe he's Jacen."

"Why not?"

"Because he wouldn't give up so easily," Jaina said. "He's stubborn, too. He wouldn't just give up like that."

"You know, I might just say that to him," Danni said. "That he's already given up on trying to reestablish his connection to you and the rest of your family. But, honestly, I don't think he's done that."

"What do you mean?"

"He says he has no hope of reconnecting to you or anyone else in the family unless he can feel you through the Force," Danni reminded Jaina. "I was just trying to get him to approach the problem from a different angle."

"By just trying to talk to me and my parents?" Jaina asked. She shook her head. "I don't think it'd work, either. That's one thing I can agree on with that man who claims to be my brother."

Danni frowned. "If you can't accept that's your brother, Jaina, then I can't help either of you. I can only do so much; if you don't wanna be helped, I don't see what more I can do."

Jaina scowled. "If you wanna help, Danni, then use your knowledge as a scientist and give me proof that's Jacen and not just a clone. We can start there. And when I'm satisfied he's not a clone, then he's gotta convince me he's not Darth Caedus reborn."

"And what do you think can convince you of that?" Danni asked. "It's easy to fake not knowing something than it is to fake knowing something; asking him questions he'd know if he were Darth Caedus only to get answers that show he doesn't know probably wouldn't convince someone like you."

"You're right, there's that," Jaina said. She put her hand under her chin in thought.

After a moment, her eyes widened in realization.

"You have a plan?" Danni asked.

"If what you say is true, Danni," Jaina said, "that none of us saw Jacen between the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War until two days ago, then I think there is a way to absolutely prove that he's not Caedus.

"But first, I have to contact my parents."


	28. Chapter 28

"He may have been an enemy, Kyle," Luke said, "but I still think even he deserves a proper cremation."

"With all due respect, Master Skywalker," Kyle said, "I don't see any reason why he should. And we have no reason to keep his body anyway; an autopsy won't tell us anything we don't already know about how he died. Plus, even if we were to put him in a storage container, he'll still smell; so unless he can be put into stasis, like in carbonite or something, I see every reason why we should just vac him."

"Kyle-"

"Also, is he really worth the effort of putting into stasis anyway? And if you're worried that we might be missing a clue from him, we already got everything we can from him from his belongings. If there's anything to be found, we'll find it."

Luke sighed. "Very well. Proceed."

Kyle then pressed the button that opened up the _Jade Shadow_'s outer airlock door. From the safety of the _Shadow_'s interior, with the ship's inner airlock door separating them from the vacuum of space, Luke and Kyle watched as the corpse of the man who claimed to be Marr Idi-Shael floated out toward the nearest star several hundred million kilometers away.

Once Kyle resealed the outer airlock door, he and Luke proceeded back to the _Shadow_'s cockpit, where the latter took the pilot seat while the former took the copilot's chair.

"To Korriban then," Luke said.

"Yeah," Kyle said in a distracted tone. He was looking out through the viewport at nowhere in particular.

After sparing a moment staring at Kyle, Luke sighed before placing his artificial hand on the other Jedi Master's shoulder.

"Listen, Kyle, if you're not up to this, because of what happened to Jaden-"

"I have to do this, Luke," Kyle said as he looked directly at the Grand Master. "I can't just go back to Coruscant and let someone else handle this. I have to do this for Jaden."

Luke let a pregnant pause pass before he spoke again. "You know that you have to be careful with that attitude, Kyle."

Kyle looked back to the stars ahead. "I know, Luke. I know. It's a dangerous path."

"It's not just that I'm worried you might fall to the dark side. If there is a secret Sith organization as Jacen and Danni claim, and assuming these Sith are responsible for Jaden's death, you could be distracted and get yourself killed. Now I don't wanna lose one of my finest Masters, whether it'd be to death or to the dark side."

"You know me, Luke. I can handle this."

"Are you really sure you can?"

Kyle looked back at Luke again. "If I do fall, Luke, whether it'd be to death or to the dark side on this mission, then I wasn't a good student and that I should never have been a Master. You know I'm better than this."

"As I said, Kyle, you're a great Master. But you can still make mistakes, just as I still can. I had to restrain myself from killing Darth Caedus so that I wouldn't fall back to the dark side after he killed Mara. I think you need to make the same decision for Jaden."

"Is that a direct order?"

"I'm asking you to do this as a friend. If you refuse, I won't make it into a command."

"Then I refuse," Kyle said firmly.

Luke sighed. "Very well. But I will make this into an order: don't forget who you are or what your responsibilities are, which are to yourself, to the Order, and to the memory of Jaden. If you do, you will lose yourself."

"I won't forget, Master Skywalker."

Luke let another moment pass in silence. "Then let's go." He activated the hyperdrive and they set off for Korriban.

. . .

"Sorry, Jaina, but you're gonna have to stop by here to pick Amelia up yourself," the holotransmission of Han Solo told his daughter. "Your mom and I have to remain here to help Lando and Nien Nunb get rid of these quakes."

"How bad is it on Kessel?" Jaina asked. She was in her quarters at her holocomm terminal.

"The planet might break apart," Han stated flatly, "and Lando and Nien will lose everything they have here."

"Well, that doesn't sound so bad," Jaina replied wryly. Her tone became serious. "All right, I'll stop by. Do you need any help?"

"Hopefully, we got everyone we need," Han said. "What do you need Amelia for anyway?"

Jaina took a moment for herself, trying to figure out how to explain this.

But, apparently, that moment took too long for Han, as he'd already figured it out. "Does this have anything to do with that man who says he's Jacen?" Not long after Uncle Luke had said that the man claiming to be Jacen would be treated as a guest in the Jedi Temple, Jaina had called her parents up to tell them that he was now living in Danni's guest quarters.

Jaina crossed her arms over her chest. "If I said yes, will you deny Alla- sorry, _Amelia_ to me?"

Han opened his mouth in response to Jaina's near-mention of Amelia's true name; but he had just as promptly closed it so as to not be baited. It was agreed that they wouldn't call Allana by her real name even on a secure transmission, and Han knew that Jaina made that near-slip-up on purpose just to irritate him.

And she did that because she already knew what his answer would be.

"I would," Han said. "You know neither me or Leia would allow Amelia anywhere near that bastard."

"So you know for sure that he's Darth Caedus reborn, Dad? Out of everyone on either the Solo or Skywalker side of the family, you'd have the smallest chance of knowing that."

"Don't get smart with me, young lady," Han intoned. "If you wanna bring Amelia to whoever that... that... _thing_ is that has Jacen's face, I might not be able to stop you, but your mother can."

"She might stand a better chance," Jaina admitted. "But don't forget that Mom's a Jedi. And since Uncle Luke says that the man claiming to be Jacen isn't a threat-"

"That doesn't mean that Amelia has to get anywhere near him," Han interrupted.

Jaina sighed in frustration. "Look, Dad-"

"The answer is no, Jaina," Han said firmly.

"Han."

The sound of Leia's voice prompted her husband to step back from the holorecorder. Jaina's mother then stepped in to speak to her.

"Jaina, please tell me why you think exposing Amelia to this man is a good idea," Leia demanded in a patient tone.

Jaina took a moment to herself. "Because I think it might be the only way to determine if this really is Jacen. If Darth Caedus really was a clone, and the last time any of us saw Jacen was on Kashyyyk after the Vong War and we met the man who would become Caedus at the beginning of the Killik crisis-"

"Then if it really is Jacen," Leia continued, "he wouldn't know about All- Amelia."

"Right," Jaina said.

"It's a bad idea," Jaina heard her father say.

"Dad, if it was Caedus reborn and he and Danni are just lying to us, and that's assuming that Danni isn't also being lied to, we know he wouldn't hurt Amelia. Even he cared too much about her to harm her when she was in his captivity."

"And speaking of which," Han said, inching himself back into frame next to his wife, "it's not that I'm worried he'll hurt her. It's whether or not he'll try to take her and use her as a hostage for his own ends again."

"I obviously agree," Leia said.

Again, Jaina sighed in frustration. "Look, I'll be there to protect Amelia. Hell, she'll have the entirety of the Jedi Temple's occupants to protect her if he should try anything."

"Even if your father and I were assured of that, dear," Leia said, "and it turns out this man claims he doesn't know who Amelia is, he could just be lying. And since we can't sense his presence through the Force, we can't even determine if he is telling the truth."

"And let's not forget that we still can't rule out if he's a clone," Han added.

"Danni's got that part covered, Dad."

"That's assuming we can trust her," Han countered.

"We can sense her presence, Han," Leia said. "I sensed she was telling the truth when she was with the man claiming to be Jacen in the Great Hall."

"Which means if she is being duped," Jaina said, "that means we can trust her findings on whether or not this man is a clone."

"But even if it is Jacen," Han said, "even you two can't find out if it's really _Jacen_ and not Caedus reborn. And again, as your mother pointed out, he could probably fake a reaction to not knowing who Amelia is if he is Caedus."

Jaina allowed a moment to pass before she responded. "You see, Dad, I don't think it'd be that simple."

"Why not?" both of Jaina's parents asked simultaneously.

"Because... when I killed Caedus, I sensed, too late, that he was trying to save Amelia. He told... well, the one with the red hair-" Jaina hoped that her parents knew she was talking about Tenel Ka "-through the Force the danger posed to her and Amelia. He died to save them from the Imperial nanovirus."

A pregnant pause passed before Han said anything. "So you think... that if Caedus really cared about Amelia that much, he couldn't hide a genuine reaction even from a non-Force-user like myself. He would know who she was and he'd let it show without helping it."

"That's what I'm getting at, Dad," Jaina said.

"Jaina, Caedus was a practiced liar," Han said. "He even had your uncle fooled for the longest time. As an experienced gambler myself, I wouldn't put any odds that he wouldn't be able to pretend he didn't know who Amelia was as soon as he saw her. And, once again, with that whole issue of no one in this family being able to sense this man-"

"Then maybe we need someone outside the family," Jaina suggested. "But also someone really close and important to both Jacen and Caedus. That's, of course, assuming they really were two different people. What that person can do is stand with us, and assuming they can sense this man's presence through the Force, then they can confirm whether or not it really is Jacen. And that's assuming that Danni's test results turn out that this man isn't a clone."

"Who do you suggest, Jaina?" Leia asked. "One of your friends, like Lowie or Tesar or-"

"No, someone much more intimate than that," Jaina said. "I think we need to get the one with the red hair."


	29. Chapter 29

"We're coming up on the Horuset system," Luke said as he looked at the readouts on the _Jade Shadow_'s console. He then looked directly at Kyle sitting next to him. "If there's anything here, something that either wasn't here when Jaden came to investigate or something that was hiding-"

"We need to be ready," Kyle interrupted impatiently. "I know."

"Well, that's reassuring," Luke remarked wryly as he looked back at the viewport and pulled down the hyperdrive lever. The _Shadow_ was then dropped off to their destination.

And only a few million kilometers away was not only the world of Korriban, but also a warship in orbit over the planet.

"Any lifesigns aboard that ship, Kyle?" Luke asked hurriedly.

Kyle looked at his own readouts. "Yes, and..."

He was cut off from saying anymore as both he and Luke winced in pain at what they felt through the Force.

The presences of dark siders not only from that ship, but also on the surface of the planet.

Once the pain that overcame both Masters subsided so that they could now gain a solid sense of the dark siders present in the system, the _Jade Shadow_'s warning systems started blaring.

"They've locked turbolasers on us!" Kyle announced after taking a reading from the console.

"Engaging evasive maneuvers!" Luke announced out of formality as he put words into action.

"Launching defensive fire!" Kyle followed as he locked the _Shadow_'s own complement of laserfire toward the warship.

As the warship began pumping turbolaser fire toward the _Shadow_, the latter ship dove into a downward spiral as Luke executed quick jinks and jukes to avoid as much damage to the vessel's shields as possible. In spite of his best efforts, the _Shadow_ still took on two hits, one on the dorsal section, the other on the belly section; each hit jostled Luke and Kyle in their seats, but they and the _Shadow_ remained largely unharmed. Kyle, for his part, managed to score several hits on the warship's shields with the laserfire he doled out, but the enemy ship's shields remained steady, too.

Once the _Shadow_ was several hundred kilometers beneath the horizon that the warship occupied, Luke took the vessel out of its dive and began a diagonal approach up toward the warship's belly. Again, his piloting kept the _Shadow_ from being blasted into oblivion by the incoming turbolaser fire while Kyle still metaphorically threw stones at the tank that was the warship. And even as the latter vessel attempted to maneuver itself to cover her underside, Luke matched the maneuver with an easy gradual slide that wasn't hampered by the ducks and weaves that he had to perform.

"On my mark, Kyle!" Luke said. "Launch two conc missiles directly at the belly!"

"Concs ready!" Kyle announced after a moment.

"Three, two, one! Launch!"

As soon as the two concussion missiles were away, Luke pulled the _Shadow_ abruptly to starboard. He set the ship for a beeline away from what had to be a massive combined explosion.

Predictably, none of the warship's turbolaser fire were able to stop the concs from reaching the belly. After the first missile hit the shields and brought them down, the second one came in and created a massive explosion that ripped open the warship's belly. Naturally, the vacuum of space blew out all equipment and personnel who happened to be in that section then.

After Kyle quickly reported to Luke about what happened, the _Shadow_ turned around and headed right back to the warship. This time, however, once the _Shadow_ was in firing distance of the warship, Luke took his own vessel into an ascent.

And right in the middle of that ascent, two more concs were dropped to the warship's dorsal section.

Like with the warship's belly, the first conc missile managed to penetrate its shields before its companion tore up the armor. More crew and equipment were vented out from the resulting hole.

Yet, as the _Shadow_ dropped back toward the warship, the latter vessel continued to fire upon its enemy.

And this time, from its hangar bay, half a dozen starfighters, all of them X-wings, were launched.

"_Now_ we get to have some fun," Kyle said darkly.

Luke pretended not to hear that; now was not the time to chastise Kyle.

As Luke threw in more rolls and sudden starts and stops in an attempt to outmaneuver both the fire from the squad of fighters and the diminishing attacks from the warship, Kyle intensified the rate of his own fire on the enemy force. Within the first half minute, Kyle was able to evaporate half the squadron and even launched another two conc missiles at the warship, taking out its engines and shield generator.

However, throughout all of this, the _Shadow_ was now starting to feel the cumulative effects of the battle; her shields were all but a few hits away from being nothing, and over three quarters of her weapons were reduced to slag.

Soon, however, Kyle was able to blow away another one of the X-wings with a well-placed shot as Luke pulled the _Shadow_ into another ascent. Upon the sudden descent, Kyle took out the penultimate starfighter within five seconds.

_That was too easy_, Luke couldn't help but think.

Then the remaining starfighter zoomed in from the _Shadow_'s port and delivered a volley of shots that took down the last of her shields.

Now all that was separating Luke and Kyle from sucking vacuum were the armor and bulkheads around them.

"Take this!" Kyle shouted as he delivered another well-placed shot.

That last starfighter blew apart brilliantly just like her companions.

But before either Luke or Kyle had a chance to celebrate even that small victory, they took a critical hit from the dying warship's turbolaser fire; that hit took out the _Shadow_'s subspace engines.

"We're going down!" Luke announced. "We're heading to the planet!"

"Well, if we're goin' down, let's take these bastards with us!" Kyle yelled.

Then he launched the _Shadow_'s last two concussion missiles, which aimed directly for the warship's bridge. And with no shields, the double explosion completely annihilated everyone present on the bridge; it then began a listing descent for Korriban just as the _Shadow_ was rocketing towards it.

"I got the repulsors and thrusters to get us in without burning up in the atmosphere!" Luke said as he did his best to keep steady what controls he still had possession of. "But we have to prep for a crash landing!"

While the warship _Eternal Crusader_ burned up and tore itself into pieces in Korriban's atmosphere, the _Jade Shadow_, even without her energy shields, managed to make it through that same atmosphere with very few problems. But once she could be seen by the naked eye in the skies over the rapidly approaching land, that was when Luke called, "Brace for impact!"

The _Shadow_'s descent took it into a rough, skidding landing that tore up and scratched at her belly for several dozens of meters before coming to a secure stop.

When Luke and Kyle both opened their eyes, seeing that they were each very much okay physically, they nodded at each other and headed to the _Shadow_'s landing ramp.

Once they were on the sandy ground of the planet, they looked around them and found that they were in the middle of nowhere.

But before they could plan their next move, both Luke and Kyle seized up as they sensed dark presences approaching them east of where they crashed. They looked and found a shuttle approaching them.

"_Sith_," Kyle growled. He unhooked his lightsaber from his belt and activated it.

Luke also had his own saber in hand, but had it remain deactivated for the moment.

The shuttle landed about a dozen meters away from Luke and Kyle. Half a minute later, its side door opened, and eight Sith stepped out.

At the forefront of these eight, however, were a man and a woman. While the woman was remarkably attractive, the man was heavily tattooed and looked like he was partially grown from a Yuuzhan Vong biolab.

The rest of the Sith formed a small circle around Luke and Kyle. The two Jedi Masters huddled back-to-back, wary of the predators around them.

But Luke's lightsaber remained inactive.

The circle of Sith made no move even to their own lightsabers, which still hung on their belts. They held their position on the two Jedi for a solid minute.

"Well?" Kyle asked. "Come on! What are you waiting for?!"

"Master Katarn, what are you doing?" Luke asked.

"They wanna fight? I'll give 'em a fight," Kyle retorted.

Five seconds passed before the tattooed man broke out into laughter.

"What's so funny, Sith?" Kyle asked. He was looking over his right shoulder at the laughing man while Luke looked over at him from his left.

"Quite a wild attitude to come from a Jedi Master, Kyle Katarn," the tattooed man said. "I would think, Master Skywalker, that you would be able to better discipline those of whom you accept to enter the rank of Master. Then again, the Jedi always did have loose standards for whom they accept even into their Padawan ranks, let alone that of Master."

Now Luke stood so that he was fully standing before the tattooed man. Kyle mirrored the Grand Master's stance; his lightsaber blade pointing at the tattooed man was the only difference in his stance compared to Luke.

"But then again, considering that I killed this one's former apprentice, I could imagine he might be a little angry."

Kyle's eyes widened in rage. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

"Kyle, don't!" Luke shouted as he tried to hold the other Master back.

But Kyle shoved the palm of his free hand against Luke's chest, blowing him back out of the circle of Sith; Luke flew by between a pale teenage girl and a purple-skinned boy of equivalent age before he crashed to the ground on his back.

When he stood back up, he saw Kyle already dueling the tattooed man, who had brandished his own red-bladed lightsaber.

Gritting his teeth, Luke finally activated his own green-bladed lightsaber and charged toward the Sith circle.

But instead of all seven of the other Sith activating their own lightsabers, one of them, the woman who seemed to be on equal authoritative footing as the tattooed man, leaped from her previous position with her own lightsaber activated and began clashing blades with the Jedi Grand Master.

None of the other Sith bothered to help their respective Masters against the Jedi; they remained in place, as they had been ordered to do previously.

The woman against whom Luke was fighting was decent, keeping him at bay for about half a minute while Kyle and the tattooed man continued dueling back and forth across the sand outside the Sith circle.

Once that half-minute was over, the woman against whom Luke was dueling managed to lock her blade against his. As they struggled against each other for several seconds, she said, "By the way, Master Skywalker, my name is Lady Olaris Rhea." She gasped as she renewed her struggle against Luke's strength; she was stronger than she looked, he thought. "I am of the Lost Tribe of the Sith; and I will be your downfall today."

"Will you now?" Luke retorted.

Finally, he broke out of the lock and resumed clashing blades with Lady Rhea.

Soon, she managed to get Luke back across the sand for several steps; but she was still unable to get past his expert defensive moves. Eventually, Rhea's dark side-fueled impatience prompted an angry growl of rage; Luke, for his part, remained calm and impassive even as he was driven further and further from Kyle and the other seven Sith.

Meanwhile, as Luke was testing Rhea's patience, the tattooed man, Darth Krayt, was the one who remained calm. But in contrast to the display of serenity that was now on Luke's face, Krayt's arrogant sneer was practically pasted on his face, driving Kyle further and further into the anger that the dark side of the Force was taking him.

"He died pathetically, Jedi!" the Sith Master exclaimed. "You should have seen the look on his face! He was a pitiable, baby-like insect to my power! He was worthless! Beneath my contempt! How he could have ascended to the ranks of Knighthood and not be expelled from your Order boggles my mind!"

Now Kyle was screaming, intensifying his attacks. Yet Krayt's defenses, and his sneer, remained perfect.

Luke, on the other hand, still retained his own calm even as he finally stood his ground and began to match Rhea's ferocious attacks. It wasn't long before he eventually began to drive her back toward Kyle and the seven other Sith; yet from the look on her face and her impatient yells, it hardly seemed like she even knew that she was on the defensive now.

Luke himself started to get impatient with this duel once he and Rhea finally got within two meters of the Sith circle. But as if in response to his own impending impatience, Rhea finally got sloppy in her defenses, and Luke took that as his advantage.

His next move got Rhea's lightsaber in a downward swipe that he leaped so high over that he soared past her shoulder and used his own lightsaber to decapitate her.

Luke heard the pale girl from before gasp in shock even before his feet hit the sandy ground at the exact same time as Rhea's head.

Luke then turned to Kyle and the tattooed man several meters away. He looked around at the other Sith, who remained impassive, and that included the girl who gasped in response to Rhea's death. So, just as the knees of Rhea's headless corpse hit the sand, Luke ran toward Kyle and his opponent several meters away.

But before he got there, and just as Rhea's body hit the ground completely, the tattooed man managed to finally get past Kyle's vicious attacks by kicking him right in the stomach, doubling him over.

Not even a second later, a downward strike removed Kyle's head from his body.

Luke was still running when he screamed, "No!"

Then the tattooed man quickly turned around and erected a Force-wall that Luke bounded off against so hard that when he collapsed to his back, his lightsaber clattered away deactivated.

Luke looked up at the tattooed man and unleashed a torrent of green lightning toward him. He had used this before against one of the Slayers of the false Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong, Shimrra Jamaane, during the final battle of the Vong War nearly a decade and a half ago.

But the tattooed man defended himself against the green lightning by producing a stream of blue lightning that came from the dark side of the Force.

"You know, Skywalker!" the tattooed man shouted as he began to step toward Luke carefully. "When Korr used this power on me, he had me at a disadvantage; I had been torturing him for quite some time with this lightning, and it had drained some of my power! Naturally, he managed to get past my lightning, but it still was not enough for me to kill him! And now! I! Am! Ready! For! YOU!"

Darth Krayt's blue lightning then overcame Luke's green, and the Jedi Grand Master felt a blast of pure, agonizing energy radiate throughout his entire being. No noise accompanied this sensation, but all Luke could see was a bright white surrounding him.

When the sensation passed, Luke was plunged into a reality where his entire being ached from absolute agony. He registered that he was lying in a meter-deep crater, and he was able to hear his own breathing and the blazing lightsaber of the man who killed both Jaden Korr and Kyle Katarn above him.

"Did Lady Rhea believe she would be the one to kill you, Skywalker?" the tattooed man asked with a satisfied grin.

Luke didn't respond.

"Of course she did," the man said. "But I saw her arrogance for what it was. I knew that you were too powerful for her. I, on the other hand, the Lord Darth Krayt, ruler of the One Sith, now stand over you, poised for triumph! I loom victorious over you, the man who had brought down the likes of Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader, Shimrra Jamaane, and so many other threats to this galaxy, for it is _I_ who is destined to bring an end to you!"

Krayt then raised his lightsaber and brought it down to strike Luke dead.

But as soon as the blade would have touched Luke's chest, it had been deactivated.

Luke was too pained to express his surprise.

Krayt, with his grin maintained, hooked his lightsaber back to his belt.

"But I will not fulfill that destiny today," he said. "For I am in need of you, Master Skywalker."

"W-what?" Luke croaked.

"There is a greater threat to this galaxy than you perceive me to be," Krayt said. "And I will need you at your best when we are to conquer her together."


	30. Chapter 30

A day had passed since Jacen and Danni had their conversation about when the former should confront his family after revealing to them that he was alive. And already, Jacen had left Danni's quarters.

By using the Aing-Tii teleportation method, Jacen had transported himself into the Jedi Temple's hangar bay. Since Danni was off getting breakfast for the both of them at this point, he expected that she would discover that he was gone in the next few minutes. However, she seemed very tired this morning; he wondered if she was too sleepy at this point to even get breakfast, let alone notice that he was gone.

His plan was to steal one of the Jedi's StealthX fighters and head to Korriban to investigate the Sith organization as discretely as he could. He had already tried contacting Uncle Luke and Master Katarn about it, but he got no response from either of them about the course of their investigation. When Jacen tried to contact Master Hamner, who was in charge of the Temple while Luke was gone, his answering machine told Jacen that he wasn't available. Jacen didn't bother leaving him a message; he sensed that the Jedi Master was, in fact, in his office, so the fact that he didn't respond was telling.

If Hamner was left in charge as he was meant to be prior to the reneging of Luke's exile from the Jedi Order, Jacen had an idea that he would have as much luck trying to get him on his side as he had with Chief of State Daala. Thus, stealing a StealthX was the only real option, Jacen thought.

When Jacen materialized in the Temple's hangar bay, he appeared over one of the catwalks, as he planned. He looked around and found no one else on the catwalk with him, just as he expected. In fact, there were almost no other people present in the hangar, given that it was still early morning.

But there were three females on the deck below him: two adults and one child. While Jacen was familiar with both adult women, Jaina and Tenel Ka Djo, he didn't know who the little girl was.

Tenel Ka, Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, immediately looked up to the catwalk on which Jacen stood. In response, Jaina imitated her action, and so did the little girl.

A brief but tense silence followed between all four of them before Jacen finally said with an awkward wave, "Um... hi."

"Jaina," Tenel Ka whispered to Jacen's sister, "protect Allana. I will investigate him myself."

"How does he seem to you right now?" Jaina asked in a whisper.

"Like Jacen," Tenel Ka affirmed. "But I need to get closer to him. He could be fooling me."

"I could come down if you-"

"Stay there," Jaina practically shouted up at her brother.

Jacen complied wordlessly.

"Be careful," Jaina whispered back to Tenel Ka.

The Queen Mother nodded, then proceeded to the staircase leading up to the catwalk upon which Jacen stood.

"I heard about your appearance in the Great Hall here a few days ago, Jacen," Tenel Ka said as she walked up each step slowly and deliberately. Her eyes never left Jacen's. "It's been a long time since we've seen each other."

"Do you believe the last time you saw me was after the Yuuzhan Vong War, Tenel Ka?" Jacen asked. "Or during the last war?"

"If what you say is true, Jacen," Tenel Ka said evenly, "then it would have been right after the Vong War."

"But you don't believe that, do you?"

"That is what I intend to find out."

Eventually, Tenel Ka reached the catwalk and approached Jacen, who remained in place.

"I expected you to be in Danni Quee's quarters, from what Jaina told me," Tenel Ka said as she continued to approach Jacen. "Why are you here in the Jedi Temple's hangar bay?"

"Um..."

"Do not lie to me, Jacen. Why are you here?"

Jacen gulped. "If I told you I was trying to escape, would you think I was a danger to the galaxy?"

"It depends on why you were trying to escape," Tenel Ka said as she finally stopped less than a meter before Jacen.

"It's to stop the Sith," Jacen said confidently.

"As I have heard from that announcement you made to the galaxy," Tenel Ka stated.

"Do you believe it, Tenel Ka?"

"I am skeptical," Tenel Ka admitted, "but not completely closed off to the possibility. Tell me, do you know who that little girl is down there?"

Jacen looked back down to the bay's deck, where Jaina held the girl close next to her hip. While Jaina continued to regard Jacen with suspicion, the girl looked at him in fear.

He looked back to Tenel Ka and shrugged; his expression conveyed ignorance. "Haven't a clue. Wanna introduce me to her?"

Tenel Ka cocked her head. "Darth Caedus was very good at hiding his true intentions and knowledge. It is very possible that you know who that little girl is down there."

Jacen's brow lowered in further confusion. "Well, I don't. So who is she?"

"Do you mean to tell me that you have never seen her before, Jacen?" Tenel Ka asked.

He shook his head. "No, I..." Jacen trailed off as he looked back down to the girl.

"Yes?" Tenel Ka asked suspiciously.

"I think I have seen her before."

"Where? When?"

"In the Great Hall," Jacen said when he looked back at Tenel Ka. "I saw her with Mom and Dad. I didn't think much of it, but now..." He looked back down at the girl again before returning his gaze to the Queen Mother. "Tenel Ka, who is she? Really, I honestly don't know, is this something that Caedus would know?"

Tenel Ka said nothing in response. She then looked back down toward Jacen's sister. "Jaina, you said that there would be test results courtesy of Miss Quee?"

"I did," Jaina said. "Hopefully, they should be ready this afternoon, if not earlier."

"Very well," Tenel Ka said before she looked back at Jacen.

"Wait, wait, hold on, what test? What are you talking about?"

"I had Danni take a hair sample from you while you were sleeping," Jaina called up. "She's gonna come back to me with a DNA analysis proving you're not a clone."

"Well, then, Danni and I are gonna have a little talk about personal space after this," Jacen said. At least that explained why she was so unusually tired this morning.

He then returned his attention back to Tenel Ka. "So what does this DNA test have to do with this girl here?"

"Jacen," Tenel Ka said, "I want you to engage with me in a mind-meld."

"Um, oh... okay," Jacen replied awkwardly.

Tenel Ka then placed her one hand across Jacen's temple, and they both closed their eyes.

It didn't take long before Tenel Ka quickly backpedalled from him in shock.

"Tenel Ka!" Jaina exclaimed as she and the girl took a step forward.

"Mom!"

Just as the girl exclaimed that, Jacen stopped just as he had helped steady Tenel Ka by her shoulders. He spared the girl another look just as Jaina was whispering very harshly at her. Jacen then looked back at Tenel Ka.

"Mom?" Jacen repeated to the Queen Mother in confusion.

Then his look of ignorance changed to one of realization. "Wait a minute, you had a daughter. She died at the end of the last war. What was her name? A-something. A-A-All-Allana. Yeah, that was it, Allana. But wait. If she..." Again, he gave the girl another look; Jaina was now staring up at him, more defensive of the girl than before.

"Is she your daughter in disguise?" Jacen asked. "You lied about her dying? But... but why?"

"Why would I lie, Jacen?" Tenel Ka asked, her bearing fully steady again. She didn't bother trying to get his hands off her.

He thought about it for a moment. "I remember that... from what Danni showed me, Caedus, he... he kidnapped your daughter at one point. Was that it, you were just trying to protect her from me, thinking I was Caedus? Was this some test to trick me into seeing if I would remember her?"

"You really do not know, do you?" Tenel Ka asked.

"Tenel Ka, what are you sensing?" Jaina asked. "Remember, he can deceive you even through the Force."

"There is no deception, Jaina," Tenel Ka said. "I have felt the pain in his mind. And Caedus would have shown his feelings for Allana by now."

"Feelings for her?" Jacen asked. "What did that little girl mean to Caedus? Tenel Ka, I'm losing my patience, who is she?"

Before Tenel Ka could say anything, one of the hangar bay doors opened. Everyone who was then in the hangar bay turned their attention in that direction, where an exhausted Danni Quee was hurrying toward Jaina and the girl with a datapad. Trailing Danni were both Cilghal and Tekli, who remained silent and stoic.

"Hey, Jacen," Danni waved as she stifled a yawn. "Honestly, you spent more time in my quarters than I thought you would."

"You sensed us in here, didn't you, Danni?" Jacen asked.

"After I discovered you weren't in my quarters," Danni confirmed. She then looked at Tenel Ka. "Your Majesty, would you and Jacen be so kind as to join us down here?"

Tenel Ka nodded. "Of course."

After Tenel Ka Force-leaped off the catwalk to join Danni, Jaina, Allana, Cilghal, and Tekli, Jacen followed suit. Jaina still regarded Jacen suspiciously.

"Now," Danni said as she held up the datapad, "I compared the DNA you sent me that was courtesy of your daughter, Your Majesty. And, indeed, I found traces of Jacen's DNA there along with yours, but-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there, Danni," Jacen interrupted. "Did you say traces of my own DNA in this girl?"

"Yes, Jacen," Danni said. "Now-"

"You mean to tell me she's... she's..." He looked back down at the girl Allana and bent down toward her.

As the little girl turned away, hugging Jaina's leg in fear, Jacen's sister placed a halting hand before him. He looked back up at Jaina in shock.

"No, Jacen, you're not her father," Danni said, getting his attention back to her. "Your clone, Darth Caedus, was her father." She then gathered all the adults, minus Cilghal and Tekli, around the datapad so they all got a good look at it. "See? Notice how the DNA sequences in Allana's genes are slightly mutated? That's because they're the result of her being the offspring of a clone as well as being the offspring to Her Majesty. Now look at the hair I took off Jacen last night; none of his genes match this mutation."

Danni lowered the datapad and let Cilghal speak.

"If the man right here were a clone," the Mon Calamari said, "his cell structure would have shown signs of cellular degradation or mutation, no matter how slight. It would have more closely matched Allana's cellular structure."

"Then... he's not a clone," Jaina said with realization.

"And he was not faking his ignorance of Allana," Tenel Ka added. "What I felt in that mind-meld, I do not believe Jacen could fake."

Jaina then gently detached herself from Allana as she stepped closer to Jacen, her eyes filled with impending cathartic tears.

"Jacen... i-is that r-really you?"

Jacen's eyes started to water, too; but now a smile appeared on his face. "Yes, Jaina. It is me."

It was right then that Jaina broke down sobbing as she collapsed into her brother's arms. Jacen joined her a second later.

Everyone else stood back, although they, too, were teary-eyed as well.

Even Allana, who barely understood what was going on.

. . .

When the _Jade Shadow_ appeared over Coruscant as it was being towed by a SoroSuub yacht, it was then left alone as the yacht turned away and disappeared back into hyperspace. Coruscant Orbital Control received no response from the _Shadow_, nor did they get anything from the SoroSuub before it left the system as abruptly as it appeared.

After several minutes, a GAS boarding party entered the _Shadow_ via an emergency docking tube from one of their military shuttles. The boarding party found nothing to be concerned of except for one thing.

In the corridor leading to the cockpit, lying still and motionless, with his eyes closed, was Luke Skywalker.


	31. Chapter 31

"He is alive," Cilghal announced.

The congregation of people present in the Jedi Temple's medbay all breathed a sigh of relief; Luke Skywalker, the man on the table around which they surrounded, did not die. In this congregation was every single Jedi Master currently on the Council, minus the Solusars and Kyle Katarn (whose death was felt by the Force by the other Masters). Jaina, Jacen, Tenel Ka, Allana, Danni, Ben Skywalker, and Tekli were the only non-Masters present. Han and Leia were still too busy in the Kessel system helping Lando Calrissian and Nien Nunb prevent the destruction of the system's namesake planet; they hadn't been told about Luke's condition yet.

Tekli relayed Cilghal's announcement to the much larger congregation of Jedi Knights and apprentices who were gathered outside the medbay. She did this by leaning out the door to tell them; gasps of relief sounded from there, too.

"However, he's in a coma," Cilghal said. "And I've seen this before, years ago, on Yavin Four. Then, it had been caused by the spirit of Exar Kun."

"Could he have returned, after all these years?" Kyp Durron asked with concern.

"I hope not," Cilghal said, her tone mirroring the concern in Kyp's.

"No, I don't think it's Exar Kun again," Jacen chimed in. "Master Hamner, what was Uncle Luke's itinerary with Master Katarn and Apprentice Idi-Shael?"

Hamner hesitated in his response as he looked at Jacen, as if the man had suddenly appeared before him.

"It's okay, Kenth," Cilghal said. "Tekli, Danni, and I have all confirmed that not only is he the real Jacen Solo, but that Darth Caedus really was his clone as he claimed. It's the Jacen from the Yuuzhan Vong War and beforehand, not the one from the Killik crisis onward."

"I trust your judgement, Cilghal," Hamner said. He then looked back at Jacen. "Since he's your family, I can tell you that Master Skywalker was on his way to Korriban with Master Katarn and Apprentice Idi-Shael."

"I knew it," Jacen said. "Master Hamner, I think you have all the proof you need. You need to organize a StealthX raid on Korriban and-"

"Wait a minute, Jacen," Hamner said. "Now there's no proof that your uncle, Master Katarn, and Apprentice Idi-Shael were ever at Korriban. The _Jade Shadow_'s records gave no indication that they were ever there while they were out on their investigation."

"This Sith organization could have wiped the _Shadow_'s memory of that, Master Hamner," Jaina suggested.

"We have no solid proof if this organization even exists, Jedi Solo," Hamner said. "All we have is your brother's word."

"What about Master Skywalker and Master Katarn's corroborated report to the Council about Marr Idi-Shael having been an imposter?" Kyp asked. "He did say that he served a Master who wasn't Master Katarn."

"That could have meant anything," Hamner said quickly. "But it doesn't necessarily point to a-"

"If I didn't know any better, Kenth," Saba Sebatyne interrupted, "I could swear that you were helping these Sith out. How can we be so sure you're not one of their infiltrators like Marr was?"

It was at that question that everyone in the room, minus Luke of course, looked at Hamner suspiciously.

The suspected Master then sighed in frustration. "Saba, you know as well as I do, as well as everyone here who isn't Jacen, that what we have here is circumstantial evidence at best. Chief of State Daala would never-"

"So _that's_ what it's all about," Kyp interrupted with obvious contempt in his tone.

"Of course it is, Kyp," Hamner replied as if his fellow Master were an idiot. "With Daala, we have no choice but to play the political game with her. We can't just organize a mass exodus without her approval."

"I would think that she would want the Jedi gone," Tenel Ka stated.

"Not if it meant we were leaving her authority," Hamner countered.

"Daala is a control freak," Kyp corroborated. "You're right, she wouldn't let us go like this. Even Master Skywalker almost leaving was something that was in her power."

"But what about the Sith?" Jacen asked. "If she knew the threat they posed-"

"Again, without solid proof of their existence, Jacen, we have no grounds to launch an assault on Korriban," Hamner reiterated. "And Daala won't view Master Skywalker's condition as proof!"

"Well, we can't just sit back and do nothing!" Jaina exclaimed. "Master Katarn is dead and Uncle Luke is in a coma again! Something is clearly going on whether you believe Jacen or not, Master Hamner!"

Hamner sighed again. "Look, I'll inform Chief Daala of the circumstances surrounding Master Skywalker and-"

"Oh, no, no, no," Kyp said. "You're not telling her any of this, Kenth."

"I have to, Kyp! She's leading this government!"

From then on, Hamner and Kyp devolved into arguing over each other. Jacen was the first one to leave the medbay in disgust; the crowd of Jedi around him parted ways to let him pass. Jaina and Danni followed him back to the blonde woman's quarters.

Ben was next, his expression and posture mirroring the disgust that Jacen had over the situation. But instead of following Jacen like Jaina and Danni, he went to his own quarters.

"Are you okay, Jacen?" Danni asked once they were all inside her quarters. Jacen had just sat himself down on the sofa and put his head in his hands.

"Does it bloody look like I'm all right, Danni?" Jacen retorted, looking up from his hands. "With Hamner leading the Order, we'll never be able to get anything done! He's Daala's lapdog, for crying out loud! Pretty soon, these Sith are gonna tear the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi Order apart and there's nothing I can do about it!"

"Jacen, you have to calm down," Danni said as she sat herself next to him.

"That's not gonna help matters, Danni! If we don't do something soon-"

"Jacen!"

He fell silent at the sound of his sister's voice. Jaina then joined him on the other side of the sofa from Danni.

"I may not know what you've been through this past decade," Jaina said, "but you're not the only one who's hurting because of these Sith. Don't you dare forget that."

Jacen sighed as he sat back in frustration. "You're right, Jaina. I'm not alone in this. But we still have to do something, and you of all people know it."

"Damn right," Jaina agreed. "Still, Hamner has a point. We can't just go behind Daala's back; if we do, she could bring the entire Galactic Alliance military down on us. You know she's capable of that, and you know we're not powerful enough to stand up to it."

"You stood up against Caedus," Jacen pointed out.

"That was different, that was war," Jaina countered. "Plus, we had allies against your clone, plenty of people who didn't think Caedus's reign of the GA was legitimate, and that was because of the heinous things he pulled. Daala, on the other hand, despite the atrocities she's pulled in the past as an Imperial, has way too much support in the GA government for us to just go against; moreover, she hasn't even done anything yet as Chief of State of this government that would warrant any justification from this Order to launch a war against her anyway. Oh, and keep in mind, I hadn't even considered this Sith organization as a threat throughout this explanation."

"You really mean to tell me we can't find non-Jedi allies who think that Daala shouldn't be running the GA?" Jacen questioned.

"Well, let's not forget, Jacen," Jaina said, "the last war wasn't too long ago. People are still trying to pick up from the tragedies that Caedus left behind. If the Jedi Order goes against the legitimate government when we have given no solid reason, as Master Hamner says, to go against it, we'll look like the bad guys."

"_Look_ like the bad guys?" Jacen asked. "Jaina, I'm not too concerned of whether or not the Jedi Order's public image is at stake here. If the Sith have their way, the Jedi Order won't be around to have a public image to protect at all!"

"Jacen, without support from the GA government, we wouldn't stand a chance in an open war with Daala, never mind the Sith," Jaina pointed out.

Jacen opened his mouth to counter, only to pause when he realized something. "Open war, you say, Jaina?"

"Yeah, that's what I said," Jaina replied in a suggestive tone.

"Okay, that's what you said, but what exactly are you implying, Jaina?" Danni was the one to ask.

"Guys," Jaina said, "I think we may have a way to subvert Daala's authority without jeopardizing the Jedi Order's stance with the GA."

"Do tell," Jacen said.

"Jacen, Danni, I formally invite you to a little organization within the Jedi Order that not even any of the Masters know about yet," Jaina said. "Welcome to the Darkmeld."


	32. Chapter 32

Where Korriban was virtually a dead world whose only real purpose was to hide the incubating One Sith, Kesh was a world richly teeming with life. Had it not been for the presence of the dominant Lost Tribe of the Sith, the planet would have been fit for the Jedi Order to peacefully occupy. But thousands of years of the Sith living here imbued Kesh with an unmistakable dark side odor; it would have been repulsive to someone like Luke Skywalker.

But to Darth Krayt, it was the only thing that endeared the world to him. Presently, he was passing by through the Lost Tribe's capital city of Tahv with his retinue of One Sith and the three Lost Tribe survivors of the _Eternal Crusader_. Everyone who saw them in the streets regarded their new guests with hostility and suspicion.

_No wonder Darth Bane believed the Rule of Two to be the only way that the Sith would not destroy each other_, Krayt thought. Indeed, he thought about killing many of the people he saw here; yes, he sensed that a lot of them had strong presences in the dark side, but it was also very clear from the way they dressed, how they adorned themselves with temporary markings, that they were a vain culture.

If he had to judge them right now, Krayt would say that none of these people were worthy of joining the One Sith.

However, before he could start conceiving a plan to eradicate this Lost Tribe, he first had to meet this Circle of Lords that Lady Rhea told him about in their meeting before she died. He had to first see if they would at least be a useful organization of allies against Abeloth... and possibly the Jedi Order once that monster was eliminated.

Yuvar Xal had replaced Rhea as the leader of the only other two survivors of the _Eternal Crusader_ after Luke Skywalker and Kyle Katarn destroyed it, Vestara Khai and Ahri Raas. And since he assumed that position, he had reluctantly agreed to serve as an intermediary between Krayt and the Circle of Lords.

"And that is only because you killed one of the Masters who took out my crew over your planet," Xal had said to Krayt when they were still on Korriban. "I still think that letting the other one live, even in the state that he's in, is a foolish mistake."

Xal, of course, was referring to the coma that Garis Boric placed Luke Skywalker in. Krayt wasn't interested in hearing Boric's explanation about how he would do it with the abilities that he learned from the Theran Listeners; once the man told him he could do it, Krayt set him to accomplish his task before having Skywalker sent back to Coruscant via a towed _Jade Shadow_.

"I will pardon you for that insult," Krayt said formally. "But rest assured, when the time comes, I will completely avenge Lady Rhea and the rest of the _Eternal Crusader_'s crew when the time is right to kill Luke Skywalker."

"No need to avenge Lady Rhea," Xal remarked.

Krayt had subsequently left Korriban with a small retinue of his One Sith and all three of the _Crusader_ survivors in one of the Sith Temple's innocuous-seeming vessels; Lord Wyyrlok was left in charge of operations on Korriban.

Upon reaching orbit of Kesh, Xal had contacted Lady Korelei of the Circle of Lords, explaining that they would be having some guests who would like to meet with the Circle. Korelei put Xal on hold to get Grand Lord Darish Vol, an elderly Keshiri man, himself to speak to Xal.

And it was then that Krayt interjected himself to speak to Vol.

"I am Darth Krayt of the One Sith," he introduced himself. "And as Master Xal told Lady Korelei, I wish to speak to you and your Circle of Lords, Grand Lord Vol, immediately."

"Yes, Lady Rhea told the Circle about your organization, Lord Krayt. Where is she now?"

"She is dead, killed by the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, Luke Skywalker."

"That explains why Xal spoke on her behalf. Very well, I will call an informal session with the members of my Circle to meet with you, Lord Krayt."

"Thank you, Grand Lord Vol." He let the elderly Keshiri sign off from the communication.

Now, after appraising the society around him just by what he was receiving from its members' Force-auras and impressions in his walk, Krayt and his retinue were approaching the meeting place of the Circle of Lords.

Soon, after he and his group entered the building with the three _Crusader_ survivors, Xal had the group stop; Krayt allowed this as a formality.

"I will introduce you to the Circle of Lords, Lord Krayt," Xal said. "Everyone else must remain here."

"Very well," Krayt accepted. He then followed Xal into the Circle Chamber.

As the two of them entered and Xal had himself be the one to make introductions, Krayt began appraising the members of the Circle of Lords just as he had appraised their citizens.

While Grand Lord Vol seemed powerful in the Force despite his age, he sensed that all of the other Lords and Ladies gathered were more or less the same not only in terms of ability and power, but also in terms of personality and ambition.

He was amazed that this society had lasted for so long here.

When Xal was done making introductions, Vol said, "You may address this council, Lord Krayt of the One Sith."

"My fellow Sith," Krayt began, "we may be separate in terms of what we believe to be ideal for our respective organizations, and I base this from what your Lady Rhea has told me. But I think that we can all agree, and I say this before I really get to know any of you, that we have two common interests that must serve as the foundation for any alliance that the One Sith and the Lost Tribe can possibly engage in."

"And what would those two interests be, Lord Krayt?" Vol asked.

"The destruction of the Jedi," Krayt said, "and the perpetuation of nearly all life under the rule of the Sith."

"We may agree that the Jedi are to be destroyed," High Lord Sarasu Taalon chimed in, "but under which Sith rule will the galaxy fall under, Lord Krayt? Your One Sith or the Lost Tribe?"

Krayt grinned. "Well, before we can think about that, we must address the issue of the perpetuation of all life. Because there is a threat to all life in the galaxy, my fellow Sith, and it is very real. She is an ancient, disgusting entity. Her name is Abeloth; and if any of us are to rule the galaxy, we must, at least for the time being, put aside whatever petty differences we may have as Sith and band together to destroy her."

"If this Abeloth is real, Lord Krayt," High Lord Ivaar Workan said, "where is she?"

"The One Sith believes her to be somewhere in the Maw," Krayt said. "Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate her... so far, anyway."

"So you want the Lost Tribe's help in discovering the location of Abeloth so that she can be eliminated," Lady Korelei surmised.

"Yes," Krayt confirmed.

"What proof do you have of her existence?" Taalon asked.

"I had received a vision from a dead Sith," Krayt said. While he had doubts as to whether or not Vergere truly ever was a Sith, he didn't want to complicate the issue with semantics.

Taalon scoffed. "And we're supposed to take your word for it that you even had this vision, let alone that it's enough to indicate the existence of this entity?"

"It is all I have," Krayt said firmly.

"You're foolish to believe that the Circle of Lords would agree to help you based on this felicitous statement, Lord Krayt," Taalon replied mockingly.

"Do not presume to think on behalf of every single member of this Circle, Lord Taalon," Vol intoned.

Taalon's tone became much more submissive as he addressed the Grand Lord. "Of course not, My Lord. Please forgive me."

"But Lord Taalon raises a good point, Lord Krayt," Vol said. "I, for one, remain skeptical of your claim. If you really want our help-"

Every single member of the Circle, as well as Xal, suddenly seized up. While Krayt remained more or less unaffected by what was happening, he could still feel the energy of the dark side of the Force coursing throughout the room.

When the sensation had passed, Lady Sashal was the one to ask, "What happened?"

It was then that Vestara Khai barged into the room, drawing the attention of everyone already inside.

"My Lords, please forgive me," Khai said with a quick bow, "but what we had just felt... was Ship leaving us!"

As Xal and the Circle of Lords gasped in shock, Krayt asked, "Ship?"

"Our Sith Meditation Sphere has left us?!" Taalon asked in shock.

"Sith Meditation Sphere?" Krayt asked, looking at the Keshiri Lord. Could it be the very same one that rejected the One Sith's offer two years ago?

"Tyro Khai!" Vol nearly yelled. "You have the strongest connection to Ship out of all of us! Do you know where it's going?"

Khai hesitated in her reply. "No, My Lord, I do not. All I can tell from his departure is that he felt happy; he is now going to some other, greater power."

"Greater power?" Taalon asked. "What can be greater than the power of the Lost Tribe of the Sith?"

Krayt didn't bother rebutting him; he had a feeling that it would not be productive. Oh, how he hated to play politics like this.

"Master Xal!" Vol announced. "I want you to take Tyros Khai and Raas and anyone else you choose to track Ship down. Take whichever vessel you choose for your pursuit. Is that understood?"

"Yes, My Lord," Xal said. He turned to leave.

"Wait a minute," Krayt said.

Everyone stopped at the tattooed man's demand.

"You dare to issue commands to the Circle of Lords, you-"

"Lord Taalon, again, stop," Vol said. "What did you wish to say, Lord Krayt?"

"Please, Grand Lord Vol, allow me and my retinue of One Sith members to accompany Master Xal's search party for your Sith Meditation Sphere," Krayt submitted formally. "If what Tyro Khai says is true, this greater power that she posits may very well be Abeloth."

Vol paused for a couple of seconds. Then he placed a hand under his chin for a moment.

"I grant your request, Lord Krayt."

Once Krayt and Xal's combined group left the Circle Chambers, Krayt allowed himself and his retinue of One Sith members to be led by Xal, Khai, and Raas to wherever they had to go to begin their search for the Sith Meditation Sphere.

As they walked at a brisk rate, with Xal issuing commands in the commlink he had to assemble his search party, Dician, who was among Krayt's retinue, whispered in her Master's ear, "If this is Abeloth, My Lord, does that mean-"

"If it is," Krayt interrupted as he kept his voice low, too, "this will be a mere reconnaissance. I want to know just what we will be going up against before I have Skywalker reawakened."

"But the Lost Tribe will want Abeloth dead and-"

"Let them try to counter her," Krayt said.

"Very well, My Lord," Dician replied before she stepped away from Krayt and resumed the walk wordlessly.

As Xal continued issuing orders, and occasionally embroiling himself in brief arguments on his commlink, Krayt noticed the teenage girl Khai looking back at him suspiciously. She quickly looked back ahead.

Krayt grinned; she will require watching in the future.


	33. Chapter 33

Night had fallen on the part of Coruscant where the Armand Isard Correctional Facility was stationed. And near one of the riot raid tunnels connected to the facility, a man-sized hole created by a Jedi's lightsaber had been cut into that tunnel's roof a few days prior.

The owner of that lightsaber, rogue Jedi Knight Seff Hellin, leaped down into that hole and, upon landing, straightened himself up in preparation for breaking a kindred spirit from captivity.

But before he could take a single step forward, his eyes widened at the sight of the hooded figure before him. The individual pulled his hood back, revealing the visage of Jacen Solo, who had cloaked his Force-presence from Seff before the latter entered the tunnel.

"I know that you wanna break Valin out of captivity, Seff," Jacen said. "You believe him to be the only other person in the galaxy who isn't an imposter of himself. You most likely believe me to be an imposter of myself, too, which I admit is interesting for two reasons. One: you and I haven't really known each other that well, Seff, so how can you get a good enough impression of me through the Force to know what I normally don't feel like? And two: believe it or not, you wouldn't be the only one in the galaxy to question my identity."

"I have no interest in killing you, imposter," Hellin said as he unhooked his lightsaber from his belt and activated it. "But I will if I have to. Now step out of the way or die."

Jacen unhooked and activated a green-bladed lightsaber.

With that, Hellin leaped forward and began to duel Jacen. The latter backed away down the tunnel, allowing his opponent to drive him further and further away from the hole that Hellin had created days earlier.

Once Jacen was confident that he and Hellin were well and truly out of view from anyone who might have caught them from above via a moving speeder or something, he chose his spot to plant his feet while continuing to clash blades with the rogue Jedi.

As the seconds ticked by, with Jacen maintaining his defense, Hellin's strikes became much more vicious and desperate; he really wanted to get to Valin, Jacen determined, even if he couldn't sense the rogue Jedi through the Force.

Soon, Jacen saw Jaina and Tahiri Veila sneaking up from behind Hellin from the periphery of his vision, their Force-presences cloaked from the rogue Jedi's senses like Jacen had been right before the former entered the tunnel.

When they stopped only a few feet behind him, Jaina and Tahiri unveiled their Force-presences to Hellin. This prompted the rogue Jedi him to instinctively look behind him, in spite of Jacen still being in front of him.

Jacen took that as his advantage to parry away one of Hellin's strikes, spin into his defenses, and knock him out with an elbow to the side of his head.

After Hellin collapsed unconscious, Jaina remarked, "Well, that was easy."

"Please don't complain about how easy that was," Jacen replied dryly. "That usually means..." He trailed off as he looked around himself, Jaina, and Tahiri.

The two women followed his glances. Jaina shrugged when she looked back at her brother. "What?"

"Oh, no, I just thought that meant that something much worse and much more difficult for us to face would come about," Jacen said. He mirrored Jaina's shrug. "My expectations were subverted."

A moment of awkward silence passed between the three of them.

"Let's just get outta here," Tahiri said with an undercurrent of hostility directed at Jacen.

It wasn't even in response to his awkwardness in that moment; despite being informed that Darth Caedus was Jacen's clone, Tahiri was still skeptical even after being presented the scientific evidence that was provided by Danni, Cilghal, and Tekli. So, obviously, she wasn't all that comfortable being around Jacen. Still, she accepted the terms of his membership into Darkmeld without complaint, and that was only because she trusted Jaina to do what she thought was right.

He, in turn, maintained a neutral expression as he hooked the green-bladed lightsaber back to his belt. "All right, well, it's been over half an hour since I teleported, so I think I can transport all of us back to the Jedi Temple. Let's gather around."

Jaina and Tahiri joined Jacen. Tahiri then picked up the deactivated lightsaber that Hellin dropped when he was knocked out and put it on her own belt. They then joined hands over the unconscious Jedi's chest and closed their eyes.

When they next reappeared, they were in the Jedi Temple's medbay. At this hour, Cilghal was asleep, so Tekli, Danni, Jagged Fel, and Winter were all the ones to meet the four teleported arrivals.

"Danni and I will get him to the Asylum Block," Tekli said as Jaina and Tahiri brought Hellin's unconscious form onto the hovercart that had been prepared for him. The Chadra-Fan then injected Hellin with an anesthetic so that he wouldn't wake up for another hour or two.

The Chadra-Fan then pressed a button that sealed the top of the 'cart, obscuring Hellin's form behind an opaque steel cover so no one passing by would see him. If anyone asked her, Tekli would just say they were some materials that Cilghal needed to be placed in the Jedi Temple's Asylum Block for reasons pertaining to medical security that she wasn't allowed to disclose even to other medical personnel. Hellin, of course, was provided an air circulator in his pseudo-coffin so that he wouldn't suffocate.

Even before Tekli was gone with Hellin, Jacen was looking over the lightsaber in his hand.

Jaina joined him. "Again, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"I know he wouldn't," Jacen replied. "But still, it feels wrong."

"You lost your own lightsaber a long time ago," Jaina pointed out. "Since you don't have another one at the ready, you and I both know that it's perfectly acceptable for you to borrow-"

"It's because of the Sith," Jacen said with simmering anger in his tone. "Just another thing they took from me. Now they force me to use Uncle Luke's blade."

"You use it for good, just as you did when we were kids," Jaina reminded him. "You used it to defend Uncle Luke. I'm sure he'd approve of you using it again."

"Speaking of that time, I share Kyp's hope that Exar Kun hasn't come back," Jacen said. "But I just know these living Sith are behind Uncle Luke's coma this time."

"I know, Jacen, I know," Jaina said as she laid a hand on his shoulder. "But until we determine the cause of this psychosis that Seff and Valin share, we have no hope of swaying Daala to our side. And if we can't sway Daala to our side-"

"Then we can't leave Coruscant to raid Korriban," Jacen concluded, once again frustrated. "I just hope we'll be able to stop the Sith in time. Having to deal with Daala, even indirectly like this, may be necessary, but it could still be the Jedi Order's undoing if we don't resolve this whole debacle quickly."

"Are we done here?" Tahiri asked, her tone of hostility from the tunnel still present. "I'd really like to get some sleep."

"You know, I think that's a really good idea," Danni chimed in, obviously trying to stave off any kind of conflict that might arise because of Tahiri. "Seff Hellin is in our hands, it's late, I think we can all agree that it's off to bed for all of us."

"No argument from me," Jag said.

"Me neither," Winter followed.

Jaina nodded even as Tahiri was the first one (ignoring Tekli, of course) out the door.

"Tahiri, wait," Jacen said as she was still leaving. But she didn't even stop before she was gone.

"Give her time, Jacen," Jaina said. "Caedus wasn't exactly good to her; but she'll come around when she accepts that it's really you."

"See ya later, Jaina, Jacen," Winter said as she walked past to leave.

"Bye, Winter," the twins said simultaneously to their childhood caregiver.

After Winter was gone, Jacen said, "I know. But Tahiri's gone through a lot of pain, probably even more than me if I'm being honest. And I'm just talking about the Yuuzhan Vong War here. But thanks to Caedus, I don't know if she'll let herself accept that it's me, even if she won't kill me because you say I can be trusted."

"Again, just give her time," Jaina said.

Jacen nodded; at this point, Danni had left the room.

"By the way, Jag, thanks for buying me this cloak," Jacen said. "Lost mine in the underworld of Coruscant."

"No problem, brother," Jag said.

Jacen responded with a slight raise of an eyebrow. "See ya later... brother." He then left, putting his hood up so that no one outside the Temple could see his face through any of the windows.

"He's my twin, not yours," Jaina said playfully. "What was that about?"

Jag shrugged nonchalantly.

"Jag... is there something you wanna tell me?"

"Oh, come on, Jaina, guys call each other brother all the time, even if they're not."

"Well... I guess so," Jaina said with a slight twinge of disappointment in his voice.

"Did you think I meant something by that?" Jag asked.

"No, not really," Jaina said.

Jag approached her and lent her his arm. "Come on, Danni's right. We should get to bed."

Jaina smiled suggestively to her boyfriend; his smile mirrored hers as they left the medbay.

. . .

_Can't believe Uncle Luke didn't just think to get me a new robe_, Jacen thought as he headed back to Danni's quarters. His visage was still obscured by the hood. _Having me remain in Danni's quarters for a week, what was he thinking?_

Of course, even as he thought that, he felt ashamed. Jacen did think—no, he _knew_—that his uncle was a smart, brilliant man. Sure, he may not have always made the best decisions, Jacen thought, but he knew that they were the decisions that he thought were best. So Jacen knew that when Luke wanted him in Danni's quarters for a week, he knew that Luke was just doing what he thought was best for his nephew's protection.

And at any rate, with his uncle in that coma, Jacen didn't want to disrespect the great man that was Luke Skywalker. Only an idiot would do something like that even if the man wasn't dead or comatose.

Soon, Jacen returned to Danni's darkened quarters, and after the door was closed, he placed the robe on a hook next to the door. He then proceeded to his room.

But upon entering, he was unexpectedly met by a passionate kiss from Danni, who had been waiting from the other side.

At first, Jacen was surprised. But pleasantly so.

And it was the pleasantness of that feeling that prompted him to grab both hands at the small of Danni's back, pulling her in closer.

When they finally disengaged from one another, Danni, grinning at him, asked, "Wanna share a bed tonight?"

Jacen, for a moment, was enraptured. Then he shook his head in an attempt to clear it. "Hey, wait a minute, Danni, wh-what-"

Danni shushed him by placing a finger on his lips. "You're stressed out. I can see that. All you think about is the Sith and the danger they pose to the galaxy. Well, guess what? Even if their threat is imminent, Jacen, you can't forget that you still have to find time to live. And since we're not in any immediate danger..."

She trailed off before she resumed her kiss with Jacen. Danni then guided him toward the bed they shared, their lips not breaking contact the whole time, until they collapsed to the bed.

For the rest of the night, Jacen's mind never returned to the Sith.


	34. Chapter 34

One of the Lost Tribe of the Sith's ChaseMaster frigates, the _Dark Dagger_, had made the several necessary hyperspace stops throughout the Maw Cluster for the past several hours. Naturally, the _Dagger_'s commander, Sith Master Yuvar Xal, was just as irritated as most everyone else aboard the ship.

But not Krayt. As everyone around him on the _Dagger_'s bridge did their duties, and Xal was seeing to his own duties (which were really just to sit in the command chair and bark orders whenever necessary), Krayt stood in a corner of the bridge, looking out the forward viewport that showed hyperspace as it was constantly interrupted by the frequent dropouts to subspace.

Somewhere here, in the all-consuming region of the Maw, Abeloth was growing in power. Since Krayt had told Wyyrlok about her, the agents that the Chagrian had sent out to the Maw were either lost in the midst of its black holes or had come back to Korriban with no information to speak of.

Krayt had ordered Wyyrlok to not have the returned agents executed for their failures; with the agents who did die trying to carry out their mission to the end, it was best to be stingy with whom they executed for their incompetence (or at least perceived incompetence). Those returned agents could have time to improve their searching skills in the future, Krayt reasoned.

But now, as Krayt waited on the bridge of the _Dark Dagger_, his emotions were a mixture of anticipation and dread. Finally, with the unknowing (or maybe knowing, for all he and the Lost Tribe knew) help of the Sith Meditation Sphere that had turned down the One Sith two years ago, Abeloth would finally be discovered.

And even if she couldn't be defeated without the help of Luke Skywalker, then at least Krayt would know just how powerful she truly was once he had Skywalker brought out of that coma to help him defeat her.

By the end of the _Dagger_'s several hours navigating the Maw through the use of Vestara Khai's connection to the Meditation Sphere, the ChaseMaster finally came within a few thousand kilometers of the orbit of a lush jungle world.

And up ahead, not only could Krayt sense the treacherous Sphere, but he could also sense, much more clearly than he had before, the presence that the spirit of Vergere had shown to him all those years ago.

Abeloth.

But where Krayt had expected the Sphere and Abeloth to still be wherever the latter originally was—which, now that he knew, would have been the planet ahead—their combined presences were currently in orbit of the planet. That fact was made all the more obvious that even with a look from the naked eye through the _Dagger_'s bridge's viewport, the Sphere could be seen.

And it waited there, as if expecting them.

"There they are!" Xal announced the obvious. He looked to the teenage girl who was standing patiently to his left. "Tyro Khai, what can you sense of Ship's intentions?"

Khai closed her eyes to concentrate. When she opened them a moment later, she looked worried before she addressed Xal. "Ship has indeed turned on us, Master Xal. He's no longer aligned himself with the Lost Tribe; he's with Abeloth now, as Lord Krayt suspected."

"And the Sphere has now freed Abeloth from that planet," Krayt said as he stepped forward to stand next to Khai. "That was all she needed. But, hopefully... fire on Ship!"

Xal stood up from his command chair and scowled at Krayt. "You have no right to issue orders here, you-"

Whatever else Xal had to say was stopped by Krayt grabbing the man's throat and lifting him off the deck. Krayt then used his free hand to grab Xal's lightsaber from his belt and angled his own body away so that the Lost Tribe Master couldn't make an attempt to grab it with his hands. Using the Force to call it to his hands would have been out of the question, too, since the strangulation that Xal was enduring ensured that he couldn't muster up the concentration.

"The destruction of that being and, by extension, that Sphere," Krayt growled, "is more important than your petty notions of authority."

Xal then chuckled. But that chuckle died off when Krayt responded by grinning; he then threw Xal to the bulkhead behind him just as the Lost Tribe Master had brandished a crystal-like dagger from his person. Xal collided with the bulkhead and collapsed to the deck before looking up at Krayt with a growl; he then pushed himself to his feet and burst into a run across the deck to the ruler of the One Sith.

But right when Xal got close enough, Krayt activated both his own and Xal's lightsabers and promptly used them both to scissor the Lost Tribe Master's head off.

After both Xal's head and body collapsed to the deck, Krayt dropped the dead Master's lightsaber onto his headless corpse while hooking his own weapon back to his belt. He then looked around at the shocked Lost Tribe members on the bridge; however, all seven members of Krayt's One Sith retinue stood ready with their hands resting on the lightsabers still hooked to their own belts.

"If any of you wish to avenge Master Xal," Krayt announced to the Lost Tribe members, "you can do so after Ship, and, more importantly, Abeloth, are destroyed." Not that Krayt would oblige any of them their revenge; he would fight, and he would win, even if he didn't have his One Sith retinue with him on the _Dark Dagger_'s bridge.

The Lost Tribe members soon dropped their cautious gazes and stances; Krayt took that to mean that, for the time being at least, they would accept his command.

"Now," Krayt said as he sat himself in the command chair, "open fire on that Sphere!"

The _Dagger_'s turbolasers fired, and without any hesitation from the vessel's crew, at Ship.

However, the Sphere engaged in evasive maneuvers even as he started his approach toward the ChaseMaster; if Ship wasn't going to attempt to destroy the _Dagger_, then he would at least try to get past her and jump into hyperspace.

There was no way that Krayt would allow that to happen, not when Abeloth was aboard that Sphere.

"Intensify forward firepower!" Krayt demanded.

Words matched action as the rapidity of laserfire increased; yet Ship remained ever so nimble in his maneuvers as he got closer and closer to the _Dark Dagger_.

Then, in the midst of his maneuvers, Ship fired a number of small, magnetically accelerated balls toward the ChaseMaster.

"No!" Krayt yelled as he stood up from the command chair.

With the Force, he tried to stop the balls from hitting the _Dagger_'s hull.

But his efforts weren't enough; while the balls were somewhat hampered, they still pierced through both the ChaseMaster's energy shields and, more importantly, her hull.

As critical, and even fatal, systems reports were being announced by the _Dagger_'s bridge crew, Krayt knew that if he stayed here, he would die; and all hopes of the One Sith's conquest of the galaxy would die with him. So, without hesitation, he stood up and rushed from the bridge to the ChaseMaster's hangar bay; hopefully, that was still his avenue of escape.

Then again, he hadn't exactly listened to those reports; for all he knew, the _Dark Dagger_'s hangar bay could have been destroyed, and all the vessels there could have been either vented into space or outright blasted into oblivion.

Regardless, Krayt rushed through the corridors of the dying _Dagger_, which was now suffering from some small internal explosions that nearly cooked the ruler of the One Sith as he was making his way to the ChaseMaster's hangar.

Thankfully, when Krayt did arrive in the bay, there were a number of starfighters ready for the taking. Several of them were already being launched to evacuate the _Dagger_, and Krayt, for his part, selected a Z-95 Headhunter as his evacuation ship.

Once he was free of the bay behind the Headhunter's controls, he sensed that all of his One Sith retinue had made it out alive.

As well, many of the Lost Tribe members had made it out, too. Among them, Krayt noted, was Vestara Khai.

So she still needed watching, he thought.

Ahead, Ship had, indeed, made it past the exploding _Dark Dagger_ and, right before Krayt could open a channel to the other evacuation ships, the Sphere jumped into hyperspace.

Quickly, Krayt pressed some buttons on the Headhunter's controls before finally opening up a channel. "I have the Sphere's coordinates! We can follow him!"

"Aye, My Lord," Dician said. The six other members of Krayt's retinue mirrored Dician's agreement with their own replies.

"Lost Tribe members," Krayt said, "if you wish to avenge your fallen comrades, and, again, that is before you take vengeance on me for Master Xal, you will follow the One Sith to destroy Abeloth! You have the coordinates for Ship's departure; follow us at your leisure."

Krayt's Headhunter, as well as the seven starfighters that the other One Sith members took, then jumped into hyperspace. A moment later, all of the Lost Tribe ships followed as the _Dark Dagger_ finally exploded.


	35. Chapter 35

After sleeping peacefully in the bed that they made love in, Jacen and Danni awakened at the sound of the bell-chime of the latter's quarters.

"You answer that," Jacen said as he covered his ears with the pillow he slept on.

"Why don't you answer it?" Danni replied sleepily.

"I'm not supposed to, remember? Can't be seen because someone outside the Temple might-"

"Oh, come on, just use your robe, the hood'll cover your face."

Jacen sighed as he took the pillow off of his ears. "All right, I'll get it."

_Well, that was a good conversation to have with her after a nice night_, Jacen thought wryly. _Whoever it is, they better give a good reason for not letting us sleep in_.

Once he got dressed and had his robe on to obscure his face, he answered the door just as the chime sounded again.

Standing there were both Tenel Ka and Allana (still disguised as Amelia, of course).

"Hello, Jacen," Tenel Ka said. "May Amelia and I come in?"

"Who is it?" Danni called from Jacen's bedroom.

"It's Tenel Ka and Amelia," Jacen called back. "They wanna come in."

"Invite 'em in, but if they want breakfast, they'll have to wait," Danni responded. "You wanna get breakfast from the mess or should I?"

"I answered the door, you get breakfast," Jacen replied.

"Yeah, that's a fair trade," Danni responded sarcastically as she walked out of the room fully dressed.

Once she reached Jacen to walk past him, she gave him a brief kiss on the lips before turning to look at Tenel Ka. The Queen Mother gave no visible reaction even through her Force-presence.

"Your Majesty, what would you and Amelia like?" Danni asked politely.

"Actually, we already ate," Tenel Ka responded evenly. "But you can get Jacen and yourself something, Miss Quee."

Danni nodded. "Excuse me." She then walked past Tenel Ka and Allana to head down to the Jedi Temple's mess hall.

When Danni was gone, Jacen said to Tenel Ka and Allana, "Come on in." Then, after both females were inside and the door was closed, Jacen replaced his robe on the hook next to the exit.

Once the three of them were seated at the dining table, Jacen asked, "So, Tenel Ka, how are you and, uh... Amelia?" He wasn't quite sure if the Queen Mother would allow her daughter's real name to be spoken even in the privacy of these quarters; while the idea that Danni's place in the Temple could have been bugged was a possibility, Jacen found it highly unlikely.

Still, he didn't want to be too careless.

"We are fine, Jacen," Tenel Ka replied. "I can see that you and Miss Quee have become very... acquainted."

"We have," Jacen replied carefully. What did she mean by that statement? he wondered.

"I see." An awkward moment passed before Tenel Ka continued. "We may drop the pretense of calling Allana Amelia here. What I have to tell you, it cannot be done in code; I must speak to you plainly. And besides, I made sure that Danni's quarters did not have any bugs in them; I personally went through it last night while you and Danni were elsewhere."

"Okay," Jacen said. "What you have to say, it must be really important if you have to intrude on our privacy like that." While he was glad to know that this happened before he and Danni made love, it still made Jacen feel uncomfortable that Tenel Ka did this at all, even if it was to protect her daughter's identity and safety. He hoped that she had a good reason.

"It is. Jacen... I had come here, with Allana, to talk about your place within our family," Tenel Ka finally said.

Jacen sat back as he realized what Tenel Ka was asking of him. "You want me to be her father."

"I know that you are technically not that," she said. "However, you are the closest thing to a father that Allana has now."

"Why ask this of me?" Jacen inquired. "My mom and dad seem to have things in hand with her."

"And they have done a good job," Tenel Ka agreed. "But they are her grandparents, not her parents. A child should be raised by the latter. Unfortunately, my duties as Queen Mother of the Consortium have precluded me from properly fulfilling my duties as mother of Allana; and the danger to her life has made it necessary for me to give her up to Han and Leia. But, let us face it, Jacen, while your parents are still very healthy for their ages, and even in spite of the death-defying feats that they have accomplished over the years, I cannot count on them to take care of her before the end of her adolescence."

The concern in Allana's eyes as she remained silent during the conversation was something that Jacen couldn't help but notice.

"I get it, they're old and they can keel over at any time," Jacen stated wryly, "while I have a much likelier chance of raising Allana through her teenage years right to the point of adulthood. And I can still be there for her even in her adult years."

"Well, I would not have said that first part about your parents quite so crudely," Tenel Ka said, "but, yes."

Jacen crossed his arms across his chest. "Well, since you already brought up the fact that I'm technically not Allana's father before you asked me to accept her from my mom and dad, I guess I can't really use that as an argument. My question to you, then, is this: have you asked Mom and Dad about this?"

Tenel Ka hesitated. "No, I have not." Allana looked at her mother in askance at that.

"Really?" Jacen asked. "You see, I'd think they'd have some say in this since they've been her guardians after you declared her dead two years ago."

"They are still busy over at Kessel helping Lando Calrissian and Nien Nunb save the planet from the mysterious groundquakes," Tenel Ka explained. "Lately, your mother and father have been out of contact, so I have not been able to tell them; at least not through a comm message."

"You could have gone to Kessel incognito and had this conversation with them," Jacen pointed out. "But, of course, you wanted to speak to me about it first, didn't you?"

Tenel Ka sighed. "Yes, I did."

"You know," Jacen said, "Jaina told me that she hasn't been able to tell our mom and dad about the test results that proved I'm not a clone and your own little test with Allana here proving that I wasn't Caedus reborn," Jacen said. "Tell me, if you did manage to get to talk to them, Tenel Ka, and you told them that you came to me first with Allana when they still haven't even been so much as informed of the proof of my identity, how do you think they'd respond?"

"Why should it matter what their response would be?" Tenel Ka countered. "While they may be her grandparents, I am her mother. My decisions would be final even if I was not Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium."

"But that decision must first be predicated on my agreement to accept Allana as my own," Jacen pointed out. "And you can't just use your authority as Queen Mother on me since I'm not a Hapan subject. Thus, you have to try to convince me of your argument through logic.

"Well, here's some logic for you, Tenel Ka. First, I don't even have a place to live to properly raise Allana; I'm here hiding out in Danni's guest quarters."

"I can arrange for you to get a place in the Hapes Consortium where you can gain a new identity," Tenel Ka offered.

"And live under your rule? Look, Tenel Ka, you may be a good Queen Mother, but I prefer not to live somewhere where men are treated as second-class citizens. And even if that weren't a concern of mine, me living in Consortium still puts me directly under your rule where you order me to do whatever you want from me. So, while we may be friends, Tenel Ka, I'd like to keep my independence, thank you very much."

"You would not have to live in the Consortium," Tenel Ka said. "You could live somewhere in GA territory under a new identity with Allana. I can make such arrangements, you know."

"Still, not interested," Jacen asserted. "Especially not when the Sith are still out there. If anything, I'm more likely to fall dead than my parents in the immediate future when I confront the Sith again. Not if, _when_."

"Then let us assume that the Sith are destroyed after this and you survive," Tenel Ka said. "Would you accept Allana then?"

Jacen shook his head. "Still no. Look, Tenel Ka, just because Caedus and I share similar, if not the same, DNA doesn't mean I can feasibly claim any paternity rights. If anything, I'd probably be more like an uncle, or maybe even a grandfather to Allana, when you really think about it. Which I guess would make my mom and dad Allana's great-grand-"

"Jacen, why are you trying to avoid responsibility for this?" Tenel Ka asked firmly.

"You say that like I'm her father," Jacen said.

"For all intents and purposes, you are!" Tenel Ka blurted.

Even Allana was shocked by this outburst from her mother.

When Tenel Ka composed herself, she said, "Jacen, whatever you are to Allana genetically, or whatever you may think of yourself to her, I do want you to raise her as your own. Even an uncle can raise his niece as if she were his daughter."

"And then I get to think of her as that," Jacen said with a note of contempt in his voice. "Sorry, but no thanks."

"Jacen, do not blame Allana-"

"Blame her for what? Being born to my clone who you thought who you thought was me? Tenel Ka, let me make it explicitly clear to you: I'm not raising this girl. She's not mine, she's my clone's, and with everything Darth Caedus did-"

It was at that moment that Allana abruptly stood up and ran out of Danni's quarters; both Jacen and Tenel Ka could hear her sobbing even as she went.

Tenel Ka scowled back at Jacen. "It is not her fault, Jacen, and you know that."

"No, but it was your fault to sleep with him."

Like that, Tenel Ka slapped him hard across the face before she stood up and left Danni's quarters.

As Tenel Ka strode down the corridor angrily, Danni, who carried a tray of breakfast for herself and Jacen, narrowly escaped the Queen Mother's path. The blonde spared the redhead's retreating form a curious glance before resuming her course for her quarters.

When she was inside, she asked Jacen, "You wanna tell me why I saw Tenel Ka walking away all huffy?"

"If I did, I think you'd deny me my breakfast," Jacen replied wryly.

In spite of what he just said, Danni set the tray down at the table anyway.

"What happened?" she asked.

After Jacen reiterated the conversation she had with Tenel Ka, Danni winced.

"I don't think it helped that she pretty much deduced that you and I were sleeping together now," Jacen said.

"You deserved that slap, you know," she said. "The only reason I don't slap you myself is because I have an idea of what you went through while Caedus was in your place."

"You think I should apologize?" Jacen asked.

"To Tenel Ka or Allana?" Danni asked. "'Cause I think you owe both of 'em an apology."

"What good would that do," Jacen countered, "when I'll still refuse to adopt her as my daughter? And that's assuming Mom and Dad agree to transfer custody of Allana over to me, despite what Tenel Ka says."

"Jacen, I think you're missing the point here," Danni said. "Tenel Ka doesn't want you accepting Allana as your own because of some excuse of adhering to some traditional rites of parenthood. She wants you to be a better father to Allana than Caedus; Tenel Ka wants you to be the man she can look up to as she grows up so that the image of Caedus as her father can disappear from her mind."

"My own dad can still be the one who Allana can look up to," Jacen pointed out.

"Jacen..."

"Danni, I don't think you quite get it. When I look into that little girl's eyes, I'm reminded of my clone, of the fact that he had taken over and ruined my life and caused so much pain and death while he was at it. Now I know that it's not her fault that she was born from him, obviously, but if that's what I see every time I look into Allana's face, when I see that she was the result of my clone essentially violating Tenel Ka, I don't see how I can ever be the father that Tenel Ka thinks Allana needs me to be. I'd just get sick to my stomach."

Danni was silent for a moment. "Wow. For once, I'm actually speechless." She then picked up the tray and stood up. "I'll be eating in the mess hall instead. You can come if you want, but I refuse to sit with you."

Jacen noticed that tears were forming in Danni's eyes right before she left. He then sighed guiltily as he hung his head in shame.


	36. Chapter 36

As soon as the door to Captain Harfard's office was open, Javis Tyrr rushed in and lay a datapad down on his desk.

"Fallanassi illusion," Tyrr said without preamble.

Seated behind his desk, Harfard raised an eyebrow in inquiry. "Come again?"

Tyrr sighed. "In my research, which you can go over the details here on this datapad, Captain, I've discovered a few things from some non-Jedi Force-sects in the galaxy. And when I came across the Fallanassi, a group of female Force-users located on the Almanian moon of Pydyr, I looked into them a bit. While they're an isolationist bunch, one thing I do know is that they're specialized in performing illusions, something that came in very handy for the New Republic in the final battle of the Black Fleet Crisis."

"And you think the Fallanassi had something to do with what you showed me a few days ago?" Harfard asked. He was referring to the holorecording of two Jedi acting somewhat erratically in one of their Temple's corridors.

"Not directly, Captain," Tyrr answered. "You know who two of the few non-Fallanassi, if not the only two non-Fallanassi in the galaxy, who were taught this illusion were? Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo."

"Or the clone of Jacen Solo, if that little broadcast from about a week ago is to be believed," Harfard replied sarcastically. "So what you're saying is that what we saw in that recording of yours, the two Jedi suddenly running before just as suddenly resuming a leisurely pace, was a Fallanassi illusion created by either Luke Skywalker or Jacen Solo or possibly both?"

"The leisurely pace part, yes," Tyrr clarified. "That was meant to cover up the running part, which is most likely real."

"So you think that this holorecording, combined with your scant research of the Fallanassi, will be enough to take to Chief of State Daala, convince her that something is amiss in the Jedi Temple, and that an investigation should be put into effect there?"

Tyrr shrugged. "That decision's up to you, Captain Harfard. I'm only providing the information."

Later, after Harfard read through the information that Tyrr provided on that datapad that he laid on the captain's desk, the latter presented both the former's holorecording and his research in the Chief of State's office.

As soon as she was done looking through both the recording and the report, she said, "Thank you, Captain Harfard, for presenting this evidence to me. I will handle it from here; or, rather, my Mandalorians will."

And it was at that moment that, far away from Coruscant, the world of Kessel had blown apart.

. . .

A few days after Abeloth escaped from the Maw via Ship, Darth Krayt and his mixed starfighter contingent of One Sith and (temporary) Lost Tribe followers arrived in the system in which they tracked their quarry: the Almania system.

And up ahead, while the Sith Meditation Sphere's presence was cloaked from him, Krayt could sense the presence of the entity who threatened to destroy everything he hoped to rule.

Opening up a transmission to his followers' starfighters, Krayt said, "Abeloth is on the moon of Pydyr. Tyro Khai, where is the Meditation Sphere?"

"He's somewhere on the moon, Lord Krayt," Vestara Khai responded after a moment. "But I don't sense Abeloth near him. I can sense she's on Pydyr, too, just not near Ship."

"Our priority is to destroy Abeloth," Krayt announced. "The Meditation Sphere is a secondary target, at best. Let us proceed to the moon."

As the starfighter contingent of Sith rocketed toward Pydyr, all of them, including Krayt, noticed that traffic in the system was essentially non-existent. There wasn't even a token Galactic Alliance presence here; should it undergo an invasion from even so much as a small band of pirates, the Almania system could easily fall to its control.

But Krayt knew that this wasn't due to some negligence on the part of the GA, even with (or, rather, especially because of) Natasi Daala running the government. In less than a week, Abeloth had done something to this system that had rendered it virtually dead.

Dread ran through his very being, an emotion that he had to cloak in his Force-presence so that none of the other Sith could sense it. Abeloth was even more powerful than he realized.

That sense of dread only increased as the Sith starfighter contingent sailed down through Pydyr's atmosphere. No life could be seen roaming the moon's terrain nor did any of the fighters pick up any signs of life on their sensors.

Yet Abeloth was here, and so was Ship, even if Khai was the only one who could sense the latter.

"Where could they be?" Ahri Raas asked over the frequency.

Then, all of a sudden, a flood of life overwhelmed the Force-senses of all the Sith present in Pydyr's sky.

Once they recovered, they saw that there was a fleet of assorted ships, starfighters, cargo ships, etc., launch from wherever they were on the ground all throughout the moon.

And among all this life, Krayt could sense Abeloth in all of them.

In less than a week, he fathomed, she was able to somehow absorb millions of beings—somehow make all of them into her—like a virus.

The mixture of this realization, combined with the incoming fleet, forced Krayt to make the following call on the frequency.

"Retreat!"

All of the Sith starfighters turned around and rushed up and out of Pydyr's atmosphere as they were pursued by the fleet of Abeloths. In the process, many of the starfighters that were manned by the avatars of Abeloth were able to blow away Krayt's contingent until there were only three Sith left: Krayt himself, Dician, and Khai.

While Khai jumped into hyperspace where Krayt knew not, the ruler of the One Sith and the only other surviving member of his Order in this system plotted a jump back to their homeworld of Korriban. Neither Krayt nor Dician bothered to see if they would be tracked by any of Abeloth's ships.

But none of them tried to. From her station aboard the Sith Meditation Sphere known as Ship, Abeloth, in the form of Akanah Norand Goss Pell, the last leader of the Fallanassi, reveled in the power that she had attained.

Had it not been for the recent destruction of Kessel, which was facilitated by Abeloth as she moved further and further away from the Maw, she would have never been able to assimilate so many millions of beings so quickly on Pydyr.

"I must now travel to Coruscant," Abeloth-Akanah announced verbally. All in her fleet heard her, for she was all of them. "I am ready to take my place in the galaxy."

_But you are more vulnerable than before, My Lady_, Ship said into Abeloth's hive mind. _While your power has been added astronomically, the chances of your death have been_-

"Silence, Ship!" Abeloth roared. "I am a goddess now! I am ready to challenge these Jedi and their allies! They are no match for me! And all who survive, I shall assimilate just as easily as I have here!"

Ship said nothing as Abeloth commanded her fleet to jump to the proverbial center of the galaxy.


	37. Chapter 37

After the Z-95 Headhunter that was piloted by Darth Krayt and the Y-wing that was piloted by Dician landed in the Korriban Sith Temple's hangar bay, Krayt wasted no time in hurrying to his chamber. He didn't even acknowledge Lord Wyyrlok, who had been waiting for him since Krayt commed ahead to let the Chagrian know that he would be returning.

Once Krayt was seated at his personal holoterminal in his quarters, he sent out a coded message to every agent of the One Sith throughout the galaxy.

The message read: WE MUST ALL MEET AT CORUSCANT. A GRAVE THREAT ENDANGERS THE ENTIRE GALAXY. EVEN OUR SECRECY MUST BE COMPROMISED IF WE ARE TO STOP ABELOTH. ONCE THERE, YOU WILL TAKE ORDERS FROM ME AND LORD WYYRLOK. KRAYT OUT. Followed by the end of this message was a note indicating the date and time they should all meet.

Krayt then reached out through the Force to sense if Garis Boric was presently in the Temple. When he found that he was, Krayt sent the man a Force-nudge, indicating that the young man should meet his ruler in the latter's quarters.

When Boric had arrived less than two minutes later, he bowed a knee to his lord and asked, "What is thy bidding, my Master?"

"I thought that we would have more time," Krayt said, "but you must go to Coruscant ahead of the rest of the One Sith fleet. Skywalker must be brought out of his coma."

Boric genuflected as he said, "Yes, my Master." He then stood up and hurried out of Krayt's quarters.

Now that Krayt was alone again, it was time to turn his attention to preparing himself and all of the One Sith presently in the Temple for the battle that lay ahead.

. . .

In the days following Seff Hellin's capture by Darkmeld, things had become suspiciously quiet around Coruscant and especially in the Jedi Temple. Everyone present in the Temple, even if they lacked Force-sensitivity, felt that something was happening, or at least going to happen. As everyone attended to their duties or recreation, an atmosphere of intangible terror lay over every single person here, yet no one gave voice to it.

And out of every Force-sensitive, whether they'd be Jedi or unaffiliated Force-sensitives like Danni, Tenel Ka, and Allana, Jacen was the one bearing the terror the heaviest. From the privacy of his bedroom in Danni's quarters, the grave weight that he first felt when the Superior Chiss' shock-collar had finally been dropped from his neck had not only returned, but it had returned with a vengeance.

It was like a cancer eating away at him from the inside. But he didn't call to ask for help, whether it'd be medical or otherwise; in fact, as he was feeling this metaphysical pain that was now practically physical, he'd specifically asked Danni to not mention it to Jaina or anyone else just two days ago.

"Whatever it is," Jacen had said to Danni, "I must search for it through meditation."

"You don't have to do this alone, you know," Danni had replied. Whatever distaste she had for him over what he said to Tenel Ka not too long ago was no longer present; Danni hadn't exactly forgiven him, but her concern for Jacen seemed to outweigh anything she might hold against him.

"But this time, I need to," Jacen had countered.

"Why?"

"Because I feel that I have to," Jacen said. "The Force itself tells me."

Not literally, of course. But the pressure that he felt from within himself might as well have conveyed, "If you seek help in this, Jacen, you will never find out what I am."

And now, as Jacen rolled around on his bed in agony, with Danni sitting in the dinner table outside trying desperately to pretend that she wasn't hearing any of his screams, he felt this existential terror finally building to a crescendo.

Whatever it was, it was almost here.

And from whatever it felt like, it felt so much worse than the Sith.

It was then that Jacen's screams of pain turned into one of terror as he saw a vision of the very being that his Sith captor had seen a decade ago.

For an infinitely long second, Jacen looked into the fanged, abominable mouth of Abeloth and felt a profound fear and sense of loss that he had never felt before.

When Jacen screamed at the image of Abeloth, Danni finally stopped pretending that she wasn't hearing her lover and rushed inside.

"Jacen! Jacen! Snap out of it!" Danni cried as she shook him by the shoulders.

In a few seconds, Jacen had finally come out of the hysteria that had plunged him into near-madness.

Well, only partially. For the look of terror was still in his eyes as he looked directly at Danni's.

"She's here," Jacen whispered fearfully.

"Who?" Danni asked, her own fear now mounting.

Before Jacen could utter the name of the entity that had given him so much fear, a siren rang throughout the Jedi Temple. Jacen was only half-cognizant of his surroundings as Danni led him out of his bedroom, out of her quarters, and into the corridor outside; neither of them even remembered the robe that Jacen was supposed to put on when he was outside Danni's quarters.

Not that it mattered, anyway. Because as Jacen, Danni, and the other Jedi who happened to be in the corridor presently saw through the window ahead, there was a fleet of dozens of armed and armored Manalorians riding toward the Temple on their jetpacks.

Jacen couldn't help but laugh like a schoolboy. Danni and a few other Jedi looked in askance at the giggling man.

"They're not even the worst problem," Jacen said.

But Jacen didn't have time to elaborate, for the Mandalorians launched their short-range missiles at the Temple.

The missiles burst through the transparisteel of not only the window lining the corridor that Jacen and the others were in, but also through the transparisteel of all the other Temple levels' windows. When they detonated, the resulting explosions killed dozens of Jedi in the process.

But not Jacen and Danni. Even in spite of his hysteria, Jacen still managed to muster up enough Force-strength to summon an invisible shield around himself and Danni. Still, they were blown back into Danni's quarters, which was then destroyed by the explosions caused by the missiles on this level of the Temple.

In the wake of those explosions, the Mandos landed inside the Temple via the various levels that they attacked with their missiles. They then immediately engaged the surviving Jedi, who had their lightsabers active and already either batting away Mando laserfire or clashing with the enemies' vibroblades.

As the battle for the Jedi Temple raged, Jacen picked himself up from the ruins of Danni's quarters before just as promptly helping her up. They then looked toward the battle that was now raging in the smoke-filled corridor ahead.

"If we have any chance of stopping Abeloth and the Sith," Jacen said as he activated his uncle's lightsaber, "we're gonna have to get past these Mandalorians." He then used the Force to call forth a hand-blaster from a Mando who just died and passed it off to Danni.

"Hope it's charged," Jacen said before he hurried into the fray.

Danni, for her part, took cover behind a part of what used to be one of her quarters' walls, checked the charge on her confiscated blaster to see that it was mostly full, and began opening fire on the nearest Mando. For now, she would lay aside the question of who Abeloth was for later.

Meanwhile, in the space above Coruscant, the fleet of Abeloths were rushing in toward Coruscant's space defenses.


	38. Chapter 38

As one, all of the ships in Abeloth's hive-minded fleet opened fire on the Galactic Alliance defense forces over Coruscant with a multitude of proton torpedoes, concussion missiles, and turbolaser fire. Many of the projectiles impacted upon the energy shields of the multiple Star Destroyers and Golan Orbital Platforms, but the initial wave failed to produce any major damage. Even several of the concussion missiles and proton torpedoes were either detonated prematurely by the laserfire from several of the Destroyers and Platforms.

But before any of Abeloth's own forces could launch a second wave of projectiles, the Star Destroyers each launched their complements of starfighters to engage the invading force. In no time at all, the skies over Coruscant turned into a free-for-all as fighters and ships from both sides started blowing each other apart.

As the battle went on, however, an intensity developed in the Abeloths' attack patterns. While it was normal for any combatant force to start increasing their ferocity against their enemies as they started to lose units, the intensity displayed by the fleet of Abeloths was more of a sign of pained desperation, like a wounded animal fighting viciously to stay alive.

Aboard Ship, who was now piloting himself in the midst of the melee, Abeloth's Akanah form writhed on the deck in pain.

_I told you, my Lady_, he communed to her. _This was not a wise strategy. With more of yourself available, the more of you there is to die; and the more you are wounded in the process_.

"Enough of your protestations, Ship!" Abeloth-Akanah demanded. "We will continue, and we will heal when we are victorious!"

Ship communed nothing more as he returned his full focus on the battle while Abeloth continued to wail in pain on her back.

. . .

Garis Boric had arrived in the Jedi Temple mere minutes before the Mandalorian attack began. So, as it was, what was originally meant to turn out as a simple mission to bring Luke Skywalker out of his coma turned into both an obstacle course and a battle for survival as Boric steadily fought his way past the Mando forces who got in his way in the Temple's corridors. Boric only hoped that once he reached the medbay, Skywalker hadn't already been killed by any of these bucketheads; if that were the case, Lord Krayt may not be able to defeat Abeloth, Boric thought with terror.

By the time Boric was close to the Temple's medbay, one Mando fired several shots at him with their sidearm. The Sith, who was disguised as a Jedi wielding a disgusting blue lightsaber, easily managed to deflect the shots back into the mercenary's armor; while the returned shots only made the Mando stumble, they were still enough for Boric to get past their defenses and impale the merc through one of their exposed joints.

Upon dispatching that Mando, Boric leaped over the fire of another merc's flamethrower. As the Sith soared through the air, he used the Force to deflect the incoming heat from his person while the Mando did their best to track him. When Boric landed, he used the Force to push the fire back to the Mando so that it soon accumulated pressure inside the 'thrower and exploded. The merc then started to run around, flailing in pain, before collapsing to the ground dead.

Boric then quickly used his lightsaber to deflect a shot that came from a Mando who was now behind him. He spun around and deflected several more shots not only at the one firing at him, but at other Mandos who were presently engaging Jedi in combat. Once Boric got close enough to the Mando currently firing at him, the merc activated their jetpack and began flying around in the air while still firing at Boric.

Boric continued to bat away the shots before leaping up and for the Mando. Once he got to the merc, Boric used his free hand to shove aside his opponent's vibroblade-wielding hand before decapitating his armored foe.

That was the last opponent that Boric faced before landing and slashing his way into the Jedi Temple's medbay.

There, a female Chadra-Fan had her lightsaber activated and regarded Boric curiously.

"Who are you?" she asked hastily.

"The one who can bring Luke Skywalker out of his coma," Boric said as he walked in. "Now where is he?" He started looking around.

The Chadra-Fan's ears perked up in realization. "I can feel your dark side presence. You're a Sith!"

Boric tilted his head in annoyance. "Now is not the time for us to duel, Jedi, even if those Mandalorians weren't here. I am your only hope of letting Skywalker regain consciousness."

Suddenly, the sound of another lightsaber had entered the room, and Boric whirled around to confront the new arrival.

But Boric then found himself at the mercy of a lightsaber the same color as his own blade pointed directly at his throat.

"If you want to help Master Skywalker, stranger," the Mon Calamari who wielded the lightsaber said, "you will deactivate that lightsaber and give it to me."

"Master Cilghal, he's a Sith!" the Chadra-Fan cried. "He can't be trusted to bring-"

"I know he's a Sith, Tekli," Cilghal replied. "But I also sense his honesty; I can't detect any traces of deceit from him. And don't think it's because he's that good that he can cloak his intentions from me; I can feel that he's genuine in what he says."

Boric scowled. "Very well." He promptly deactivated his lightsaber and handed it to Cilghal.

But the Mon Calamari still maintained her blade near the human's neck as she guided him to an emergency patient storage station in the medbay; a vault-like structure meant to keep safe any patients who might get caught in the crossfires of an attack on the Jedi Temple.

After Cilghal input the password that opened up the vault's door, all the while never letting her guard down around Boric, she ushered him inside with her blade.

"Don't try anything funny, Sith, or I promise you, you will die very quickly," Cilghal threatened. "And it won't be painless, either."

"I'll keep that in mind," Boric said wryly as he sat himself in a guest chair next to the comatose Luke Skywalker.

He then placed both hands on Skywalker's temples, closed his eyes, and began channeling his energies into bring the Jedi Grand Master out of his coma.

"Master Cilghal!" Tekli called.

By that point, two Mandalorians rushed into the room and began firing at Tekli. Cilghal turned at the sound of the blasterfire.

And right when she did, one of the mercenaries turned toward her and began firing at her. Cilghal deflected the shots back to the Mando, yet they kept on approaching her, their returned shots not even putting a dent into their _beskar_ armor.

Once the Mando entered the emergency storage station, Cilghal decided that now was the time to change tactics.

She then advanced on the merc, increasing the rapidity of her deflections, even as she was forced to divert the incoming bolts elsewhere in the station aside from her opponent.

When the gap finally closed between them, the Mando, who continued to fire at Cilghal, brandished their vibroblade and slashed at the Mon Calamari.

The Jedi Master, however, leaped up and over the merc and decapitated them in one fell swoop.

It was only after her feet touched the floor that the Mando's headless body finally collapsed. The head, meanwhile, had clattered elsewhere in the room.

Cilghal then turned around and gasped at the sight she saw.

The Sith, Garis Boric, lay on the floor, his eyes open. Cilghal rushed over to him and, suspecting what might be the cause of his state very quickly, flipped him over so that she saw his back.

A charred hole, the result of a laser bolt, had burned through Boric's clothing and into his flesh. He was most certainly dead.

Cilghal then stood up and looked back down at the bed where Luke Skywalker still lay.

Indeed, Boric didn't have enough time; Luke was still comatose.


	39. Chapter 39

"Okay, we should be coming up on Coruscant in a few moments," Han said from the pilot seat of the _Millennium Falcon_. He then looked away from his ship's instruments to his wife, Leia, in the copilot seat, whose expression was plunged in horror as she looked out to the vessel's forward viewport.

"Hey, come on, I know that was a narrow escape from Kessel," Han said, "but that's long past-"

"Han," Leia interrupted without looking at her husband. "Something's happening."

Han's eyebrows lowered in concern. "At Coruscant."

"Yes."

"Strap yourself in then, honey," Han said as he did exactly that for himself. "If what you say is true, we're goin' in hot."

In spite of what she was feeling through the Force, Leia complied.

Seconds later, the _Falcon_, indeed, dropped out into the middle of a raging battle in the Coruscant system. Already, the YT-1300 was hit by three separate turbolaser attacks.

As Han wordlessly put his ship into evasive maneuvers, Leia promptly unstrapped herself and headed back to man the dorsal quad cannon. But even before Leia managed to sit herself down at the cannon, the _Falcon_'s shields were already reduced to about half of their effectiveness, in spite of Han's piloting skills.

The only way for Han to know who was an enemy here, aside from the fact that the _Falcon_'s friend-or-foe indicator could tell him (which assumed that he could spare even a solid second looking at it), was that they didn't bear the insignia of the GA Navy. Even so, it was tough to maneuver around in a field of exploding ships and impacting projectiles (namely lasers for the latter).

Thankfully, once Leia had seated herself at the dorsal cannon, the _Falcon_ began to take on significantly less damage as she began blasting away at ships that weren't registered as GA Navy even on visuals alone. Still, the YT's defenses were dwindling, and it didn't seem like there was any way to stop it short of all of the mysterious enemy ships suddenly exploding.

"Whoever these guys are," Han couldn't help mutter to himself, "they really aren't goin' down without a fight." He said nothing more as he poured the rest of his concentration into dodging more enemy fire.

. . .

Just as the last Mandalorian in the corridor turned around to aim their handblaster at Jacen, the latter quickly used the Force to lift the mercenary's helmet off their head. The sudden move stunned the Mando, who was revealed to be a deeply tanned human male, and it was enough time for Jacen to close the gap between him and his opponent in two steps before plunging his lightsaber right through the his head.

After the Mando dropped dead, Jacen looked around and saw that while the Jedi in this corridor emerged victorious from this confrontation, too many of them were dead.

And the sounds of blasterfire echoing elsewhere in the Temple served as a reminder that even more Jedi will die soon.

"Danni, we have to go," Jacen said as his lover joined his side.

"We can take the turbolift," one Jedi—a male Arcona—said as he and a green-skinned male Twi'lek headed toward it.

"No, wait," Jacen said. "After the explosions, they might not be stable. If we're to escape and save the remaining Jedi, we'll have to-"

"We don't have to listen to you!" the green-skinned Twi'lek shouted. "I don't care if you are Caedus reborn or not, I'm not taking advice from someone who even _looks_ like that monster!" He then turned to the 'lift with his Arcona friend and the former pressed a button.

But just as the 'lift doors opened, it didn't hold for a second before the elevator suddenly descended. A few seconds later, it impacted at the bottom, leaving the Twi'lek and Arcona stunned.

Jacen couldn't help but smirk. "Told ya. Now, onto what I was gonna suggest."

He then plunged his lightsaber's blade into the floor around his feet and began tracing a circle. Once the circle was complete, the section that Jacen stood on fell down to the next level of the Temple with him on it.

And into a corridor with very few Jedi still facing a much larger group of Mandalorians.

Jacen didn't even have time to roll his eyes at his own stupidity—he should have allowed himself to pick up what was happening below him right before he made that cut with his lightsaber—before he had to start deflecting shots from the Mando who just fired on him.

Thankfully, the Jedi from above followed in his wake, with the Twi'lek and Arcona being the last two to join. Danni, meanwhile, kept herself safe but still dependable by placing herself on her belly and firing down at the Mandos from the lip of the hole that Jacen created. While her shots were too imprecise to do any damage, the impact of Danni's bolts still dazed them enough to be an advantage to the Jedi who soon began to take them out.

. . .

The Jedi Temple's hangar bay was where the fighting between the remaining Jedi and Mandalorians raged most fiercely, especially as more members from both sides entered the bay to throw themselves into the chaos. However, it was in this battlefield that the Mandos were granted quite an advantage: the Jedi had no choice but to restrain themselves in how they fought lest they accidentally damage the ships around them, which were their best way to escape the invading force.

But as the fighting went on, the Mandos simultaneously added to their advantage while taking away from it: while they intentionally destroyed several Jedi StealthXs to prevent their Force-sensitive enemies from escaping, that only allowed the Jedi who were closest to those destroyed fighters to cut loose a little bit in their fighting styles. Naturally, many Mandos went down as a result of their tactic of preventing the Jedi from escaping.

In the midst of all this fighting, however, Kenth Hamner, who had once again resumed his role as acting Grand Master of the Jedi Order since Luke fell into his most recent coma, sought to reach the hangar bay's intercom system. His plan was to transmit a frequency that would reach beyond the bay and resonate throughout the entire Temple to tell the Jedi not currently in the hangar to evacuate in any way they could.

But just as Hamner reached the intercom, and that was only after he skewered a Mando through one of their exposed joint areas, the acting Grand Master instinctively leaned quickly to the right to dodge a rocket.

And that rocket exploded right into the intercom console, blowing it up instantly. Hamner, as a result, was sent flying back several meters before he crashed to his back.

Reeling from the explosive force, Hamner saw a Mando leering down at him before they aimed their handblaster at the stunned Jedi.

But before the merc got a chance to pull the trigger, the lightsaber blade of Saba Sebatyne promptly decapitated Hamner's would-be killer before they even had a second to react.

Even with all of the projectiles flying around her, Saba still saw fit to lend her free hand to Hamner, wordlessly indicating that she was willing to help him up. Hamner took the hand without hesitation and was pulled to his feet before he began deflecting Mando laser bolts away with Saba at his side.

"We have to find some way to let all the remaining Jedi here know to evacuate any way they can!" Hamner said above the sound of battle.

"Evacuate?" Saba asked with disdain. She still didn't lower her guard one iota against the incoming projectiles. "In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances!"

"And I think you haven't realized that the situation is lost, Saba!" Hamner rebuked. "The Temple is lost! And the Jedi have to leave or we'll all be killed! Then we have to regroup!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Kenth!" Saba said. "These Mandos are just as susceptible to our lightsabers as we are to their weapons! We kill them at a great rate! With the Force on our side, we will-"

It was then that Saba was cut off as a daring Mando flew in on their jetpack at Saba, their handblaster missing—probably lost or destroyed in the midst of the battle earlier—but their vibroblade brandished. Saba promptly batted her lightsaber at the Mando, only for the latter to tuck their own blade close to their chest as the Jedi's blade bounded off the armor of their arm.

Less than a second after that, the Mando tackled Saba across the hangar bay and up against a wall. The impact that Saba sustained upon hitting the wall knocked the wind out of her so hard that her lightsaber flew from her grasp, deactivated. And while it was still in midair, a misfired bolt from one of the Mandos destroyed the Jedi weapon, as if that was the intention all along.

And not even a second after Saba's lightsaber was destroyed, the Mando who drove the Barabel up against the wall tried to stab her with the vibroblade. But with one hand, Saba grabbed her opponent by the blade-wielding wrist and began sinking her claws into it. As the merc started screaming a deep but feminine yowl, indicating that they were a female, Saba used her free hand to grab the Mando by the throat and sink her talons there.

The Mando soon gurgled as blood oozed out from both her neck and wrist. Once Saba couldn't detect a pulse from either the wrist or neck, she allowed the Mando to drop to the floor, dead.

However, a masculine growl came from off to the side and a Mando, who had just slit a human male Jedi's throat with his vibroblade, hefted his sidearm and aimed it at Saba.

Saba, however, used the Force to erect a Force-shield around herself so that the inevitable bolts dissipated harmlessly against her invisible shield. That allowed the Mando before her to be decapitated by a Jedi who just so happened to be behind him at that moment.

But before Saba could drop her Force-shield, a Mando rocket impacted against it from behind, sending Saba careening across the hangar again; and along the way, she bowled through a few Jedi, causing them to fall to the floor where they were subsequently killed by their mercenary opponents.

By the time Saba rolled to a landing, her vision was blurred, and she could barely make out the Mando who was rocketing in toward her. However, another shape, which Saba believed to belong to Kenth Hamner, flipped itself before the incoming Mando and struck them to the ground. Hamner then finished the merc off by plunging his blade through Saba's would-be killer's throat.

When Saba's vision became clear again, Hamner had turned to regard her with worry.

But before he could ask if she was okay, he suddenly seized up.

And Saba gasped as she saw what happened two seconds later: a poison dart had been fired directly in the left side of Hamner's neck.

As Saba felt the life drain out of her friend and fellow Jedi Master, she looked to her right and saw a Mando across the hangar whose wrist was pointing in Hamner's general direction. They kept it level as if to taunt Saba.

Snarling, Saba pounced to her feet and rushed toward the Mando who had killed Hamner.

Then another Mando dropped in front of Saba, having had their jetpack deactivated, and launched a rocket from that 'pack.

Immediately, Saba skidded to a stop and erected another Force-shield.

But it was too late. The impact, combined with the close range of the rocket, practically blew apart Saba's Force-shield, and the majority of the fiery heat and the remaining debris from the projectile enveloped the Barabel Jedi Master even as they blew her back several meters.

She landed with several crashes along the hangar bay's floor before coming to a stop on her back. Saba was now both badly charred from the fire and bleeding from the debris that had lodged itself into her scaly hide.

And as if to pour metaphorical salt into the wound that was her failure to avenge her friend, it seemed as if the Force saw fit to have her land next to the dying form of Kenth Hamner.

"Saba..." Hamner croaked. "Is... all... lost?"

As she lay dying, Saba wheezed, "I... don't... think so. I... feel... the Force... telling me..." She trailed off and said no more.

It was at that moment that they both died simultaneously.


	40. Chapter 40

The One Sith fleet that dropped out into the Coruscant system was only a few hundred vessels strong. But Darth Krayt, who was at the vanguard of the fleet in the Z-95 Headhunter from the lost _Dark Dagger_, was confident that they would still be enough to help the Galactic Alliance and Jedi forces against Abeloth's fleet.

Sure enough, it appeared as if the government forces needed some help. Two Star Destroyers had already been lost, blown apart to debris, while only one Destroyer still seemed to be more or less intact; her surviving counterparts, in contrast, had sustained considerable damage.

Abeloth had been putting up quite a fight, Krayt assessed more with frustration than admiration from where he had dropped out of hyperspace (which was well outside the combat field). And she still was, because for every ship in her fleet that was currently being lost, three enemy ships were blown away under the ferocity of her desperate attacks.

Krayt almost considered allowing Abeloth to destroy the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi herself, or at least deal them a great blow if she ended up dying. Almost. But Krayt wouldn't allow that because if anyone were to defeat the GA and Jedi, it would be him and his One Sith; and he wouldn't allow a monster like Abeloth to rule the stars over him.

"All units," Krayt announced over the encrypted band to his followers, "follow my mark. And remember: the Sith Meditation Sphere is mine, and mine alone. Whoever in this squadron destroys it will suffer severe punishment for denying me my revenge."

Then the One Sith entered the battlefield, spouting off lasers in an effort to rid the galaxy of Abeloth. And in only mere moments, Krayt saw his desired target, the treacherous Sith Meditation Sphere named Ship, not too far away.

As he rocketed through the melee to get within firing range of the Sphere, Ship turned toward Krayt's Headhunter, having sensed the ruler of the One Sith's intentions. And as a result, the Sphere decided to meet Krayt head-on.

It didn't take long before they engaged in firing projectiles—Krayt with lasers, Ship with metal balls—at each other; naturally, dodging the projectiles of the other followed soon after.

. . .

Jacen was in the middle of blocking several laser bolts from the Mandalorian in front of him before he suddenly felt the familiar and unsettling presence of someone he hadn't felt in well over a decade. The distraction caused him to fall to his back as he got a bolt to his left shoulder as a result.

Thankfully, Jacen was saved from anymore bolts from that Mando as the green-skinned Twi'lek from earlier engaged the merc. That left Jacen with enough time to seethe over his wound for a moment before he leaped to his feet and immediately clashed his lightsaber blade with that of another Mando's vibroblade. Jacen shunted away the burning pain in his shoulder as he fought.

But even as he dueled this merc, one thing Jacen couldn't shunt out was the newfound sense of dread that he had just felt. Not only had this new terrible entity named Abeloth entered the Coruscant system, but so had his Sith captor from ten years ago.

And with this Mandalorian invasion of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Jacen couldn't help but wonder if today would be yet another downfall for the Order.

For that distraction, the Mando in front of Jacen managed to get past his defenses and stabbed the vibroblade right into his burned shoulder.

Jacen definitely couldn't shunt out that pain, and he screamed even before the merc pulled the blade out. As the Jedi stumbled back from the agony, the Mando reached back to slash at their opponent's throat.

Suddenly, Danni, who must have lost the handblaster that she had beforehand, tackled the Mando who was about to kill Jacen up against the wall behind them. But before Danni could disengage, the merc elbowed her at the small of her back, collapsing her to the floor. The Mando then plunged the blade right below Danni's left shoulder.

Jacen had recovered quickly enough to witness this in horror, and screamed, "No!" before the Mando retracted the blade from Danni. The wounded Jedi managed to decapitate the Mando before they could finish off the scientist.

Jacen then knelt beside Danni before erecting a Force-shield around them; lasers dissipated harmlessly off of it as the Jedi continued to fight the Mandos around them. He deactivated his lightsaber and hooked it back to his belt before he proceeded to help Danni.

"Oh, no, you're gonna be all right, you're gonna make it," Jacen said hastily as he tore off his right sleeve and hurriedly bandaged it around Danni's wound. Still, in spite of his effort, blood still appeared through the cloth as she groaned in pain; Jacen wanted to get Danni to her back, but with her wound there, he thought it wouldn't be a good idea.

Breathing heavily, thinking of what to do, Jacen grabbed Danni, closed his eyes, and dropped the Force-shield as he concentrated on performing the Aing-Tii teleportation method.

He and Danni were both gone before any lasers could touch them.

When next they reappeared, they were in the Jedi Temple's medbay. Outside, the sounds of battle continued to rage.

And Cilghal and Tekli were in the middle of transporting two patients on hovercarts; both carts were covered by opaque steel to protect the patients and their identities. The Mon Calamari and Chadra-Fan both looked at Jacen and Danni in concern.

"She needs medical attention!" Jacen shouted as he lay Danni down on the nearest bed, uncaring of the dead Mando body he passed by.

Tekli hurried away from the 'cart she was attending and headed to a supply cabinet to collect some things to help Danni. She hurried over to the human to tend her wounds with some salve and anesthesia.

At that point, the hovercart that was now unattended emitted a male scream of confusion and rage. While Tekli's attention was firmly on helping Danni, Cilghal and even Jacen couldn't help but look in the direction of the 'cart.

Jacen looked at Cilghal. "Seff Hellin?"

The Mon Cal nodded. "I found out about him, but I won't tell if you won't." Her tone indicated that at this point, it was moot that it still be kept secret from the Jedi Council. She then became clinical as she said, "We just knocked him out with anesthesia for transport to the hangar bay; he shouldn't-"

"Abeloth!" Hellin's voice came from behind the opaque steel. "Abeloth! I must reach you!"

Jacen and Cilghal shared a worried glance.

"Do you know what he's talking about?" the Mon Calamari asked.

"I think I do," Jacen said.

Then three Mandos rushed inside, and Jacen and Cilghal each activated their lightsabers as they began batting bolts away from them.

But before the fight could proceed any further, the hovercart containing Seff Hellin suddenly burst apart as if destroyed by compressed gas from the inside. The resulting force caused Jacen, Cilghal, and the three Mandos to fly back; Tekli and Danni were, thankfully, outside the small blast radius, and the Chadra-Fan was only slightly startled before she resumed helping her human patient and friend.

And from the remains of the hovercart, Seff Hellin was on his feet, a crazed look in his eyes as he stared down at the Mandos.

Just as the trio of mercs raised their handblasters up at Hellin, the rogue Jedi raised both of his hands and used the Force to lift the Mandos into the air. And from there, he began to use their armor against them as they pressed up against their owners' bodies.

"Seff, stop it!" Jacen yelled. "You can't use the Force like that!"

"Oh, yeah?" Hellin responded without looking away from his victims. "Watch me, imposter!"

Hellin then finished the Mandos off, blood oozing from the gaps in their armor, before he flung them at both Jacen and Cilghal. Both Jedi rolled out of the way of the bodies; when they both came back to their feet, they saw that Hellin had seemed to have forgotten about them as he rushed out of the medbay.

Out in the corridor where the remaining Jedi and Mandos continued to fight there, Hellin soon became the focus of several nearby mercs who began shooting at him. He quickly erected a Force-shield and then blew them back by rapidly expanding that shield.

"So you fakes wanna play?" Hellin asked maliciously at the downed mercs.

While he believed that everyone around him was an imposter, it seemed that he would have to get past the false Mandos if he wanted to leave. So Hellin used the Force to not only fling the Mandos whom he just downed against the walls of the corridor that they were in, but he also began focusing his attacks on the other mercs in the hallway.

Back in the medbay, Tekli announced to Jacen, who had applied a bacta patch to his shoulder wound, and Cilghal, "I've got Danni stabilized! And I think we still have one more protective hovercart for her! I'll go get it!"

When Hellin was done, the Jedi in the corridor were victorious; the rogue Jedi paid none of whom he believed to be fakes any mind before he rushed toward the gap ahead where a line of windows should have been. He then leaped out into the depths of Coruscant to somewhere the Jedi in the corridor knew not.

After Hellin was gone, and it was safe for the Jedi in the corridor, Jacen and Tekli exited the medbay with the unconscious forms of Danni Quee and Luke Skywalker (who was in the hovercart that was previously set to leave with the one that had contained Hellin) respectively. Cilghal, who had taken point ahead of the human and Chadra-Fan, cut a hole in the floor that would take them closer to the Temple's hangar bay.

Once the hole was made, Cilghal spared a look down to see if there was any fighting there. There were, thankfully, no signs of Jedi or Mandos.

"Follow me, everybody," Cilghal said to all the Jedi in the corridor before she leaped down.

. . .

After taking out two more enemy ships from the dorsal cannon, Leia called back, "Han, we have to get to Coruscant! I sense Jaina and the others are in trouble there!"

"Gotcha, I think we can make it from here!" Han said. The _Falcon_'s shields were a little less than 25% at this point, so he hoped that they could make it.

The YT-1300 finally managed to get past the hairball of projectiles plaguing the space around Coruscant and plunged down through the planet's atmosphere. From there, once the ship cleared the friction and was rocketing smoothly down through the air, Han plotted a course for the Jedi Temple. And while he had slowed in speed for atmospheric purposes, the _Falcon_ was still heading as quickly as she could for the Temple.

Yet it didn't seem to get there fast enough by the time Han saw that it was under siege. Leia, who had just joined him in the copilot seat again, gasped in horror at the sight while Han remained stoically silent.

"Who-"

"Luke, Jaina, and Ben are still alive," Leia reported. "But there's something about Luke... I can't sense either Allana or Tenel Ka, and that worries me even more."

"I didn't see any Hapan Battle Dragons in that hairball," Han said. "They probably left sometime ago."

"I hope so, too," Leia said. "But we have to rescue the others." She then paused. "And Luke..."

"If he's still alive, that's all that matters right now," Han said. "We'll figure the rest out after we evacuate the Jedi."

By this point, they were nearing the Temple's hangar bay, which was still closed off. Naturally, Han had the _Falcon_'s belly turret blow open an entrance large enough for the YT-1300 to land inside.

There, Han operated the turret again to blow back several Mandos; while their _beskar_ armor stayed intact, the impacts of the giant laser bolts would have surely killed them regardless. And Leia had once again resumed her station at the dorsal cannon to aid the Jedi against the mercs.

. . .

_Yes!_ Ship declared. He had just ended his dogfight with the Sith piloting the Headhunter by launching a metal ball that damaged a critical part of the opposing vessel. It sent that Sith spiraling toward Coruscant at an uncontrolled rate; with any luck, he would burn up in the atmosphere.

However, it was clear to Ship at this point that his lady, Abeloth, was dying. She had lost too much of herself in this battle, so Ship thought it prudent to once again bring up the issue of leaving the system.

_My Lady, while we have been doing well so far, we must leave now before you really are too weakened to continue_.

Even as she still writhed on Ship's deck, Abeloth-Akanah still had enough sense to sneer.

"I will not give up when we are so close to-"

Before she could finish that sentence, she once again winced in pain.

_My Lady?_ Ship asked.

Abeloth growled, and took a moment to herself before responding.

"Very well. We may leave."

_Thank you._

It was at that point that the remainder of Abeloth's fleet turned away and began plunging into the depths of hyperspace.

And Ship was among the first to do so.

. . .

Cilghal, Jacen, and Tekli, along with the hovercarts carrying Luke and Danni, finally entered the Jedi Temple's hangar bay. There, the _Millennium Falcon_ was really giving the remaining Jedi there—among them being Jaina, Ben, and pretty much all of Jacen's friends from childhood and the Yuuzhan Vong War—were still battling the dwindling Mandalorian forces.

And while it was good to see that Kyp Durron, Corran Horn, and Octa Ramis were all still on their feet, each batting away laserbolts fired by the Mandos, Jacen couldn't help but frown at the fallen forms of Saba Sebatyne and Kenth Hamner nearby.

Even in spite of the hostility that those two Masters in particular showed him upon his return, he still felt sad at their losses.

But he would have time to more properly grieve their losses later. Right now, he had to stay focused as he also batted away bolts with his—no, his uncle's—lightsaber, all the while still pushing forward the hovercart that carried Danni's sedated body.

"Get into the _Millennium Falcon_!" Cilghal announced to all the Jedi still standing. "Come on!"

As the Mon Calamari led the charge up the _Falcon_'s downed boarding ramp, Jaina and Ben hurried over to help Jacen and Tekli better protect the steel-protected forms of Danni and Luke. Jaina, who spared her brother a sad smile, used the Force to deflect Mando rockets and her own lightsaber to bat away bolts from Danni's shielded hovercart.

Meanwhile, Ben, who spared Jacen a scowl, proceeded to help Tekli protect his father's hovercart in the exact same way that Jaina was doing.

Two minutes later, the Jedi protecting the hovercarts were the last ones aboard the _Falcon_, and with all of the Mandos in the hangar bay dead. But right as the Solo twins, Ben, Tekli, and their carted charges were aboard, more Mandos—survivors from other battles with Jedi elsewhere in the Temple—rushed in.

But it was too late for them to do anything. The _Falcon_'s boarding ramp was raised, and she took off through the hole that she had made in the bay's ceiling/roof.


	41. Chapter 41

In her throne room-like quarters aboard the Hapan Battle Dragon _Dragon Queen_, Tenel Ka was startled out of her bored reverie as the chime to her quarters had sounded. She had been just going over her datapad, which had contained a list of typical grievances from several Duchas, so she was glad for any interruptions.

"Come in," Tenel Ka said as she laid the 'pad on her right armrest.

After the door to her quarters opened up, one of her handmaidens, Petel, looked worried as she hurried forward and stopped several meters away to offer proper genuflection.

"Rise and speak," Tenel Ka commanded.

Once Petel was on her feet, she said, "Your Majesty, I have something urgent to show you. It is about the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and the planet itself."

"What about them?" Tenel Ka asked worriedly.

"The Temple is under siege by a contingent of Mandalorians!" Petel explained. "And Coruscant is under attack by some wild and unknown force!"

"Show me," Tenel Ka demanded urgently.

Petel nodded and brought out her own datapad. After receiving wordless permission from her Queen Mother via a wave, the handmaiden stepped up the steps to the throne and brandished a datapad that showed a broadcast from the HoloNet.

According to _The Perre Needmo Newshour_, the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was, indeed, besieged by a small army of Mandalorian mercenaries. And in the space surrounding the Galactic Alliance's capital planet, an assortment of ships were firing wildly every which way against the Navy forces.

Tenel Ka sat back in shock. Only yesterday, she had left with Allana because of the feeling of dread that had been building up in the Force, as it had been felt in the Temple. And before she and Allana left, Tenel Ka had told Jaina and acting Grand Master Hamner about their imminent departure; whether or not Tenel Ka told Jacen was irrelevant to the Queen Mother, as she didn't care to inform that heartless man about it herself.

After Tenel Ka and Allana left the Jedi Temple incognito and returned to the _Dragon Queen_, which was a good few systems away from Coruscant, the Queen Mother had felt the tension in the Force somewhat relieved. It was still there, she felt, but it wasn't concentrated around her and Allana anymore, as if they were moving away from the source; between then and now, Tenel Ka had thought that she had made the right decision.

Now, after seeing the Temple under siege, she wasn't quite sure. Oh, she had no regrets about getting Allana out of there, but at the same time, Tenel Ka couldn't help but feel guilty about leaving her friends alone to counter this threat. She felt as if she had abandoned them when she knew that something was going to happen, if it wasn't already happening.

She even felt bad about leaving Jacen there.

"Your Majesty," Petel chimed in, "we had only dropped out of hyperspace for a course correction. This will be one of our last stops before we return to the Transitory Mists. What do you want us to do?"

The first thing that Tenel Ka wanted to do was to order the _Dragon Queen_ back to Coruscant to help the GA and the Jedi.

But while she was willing to risk her own life to help her friends, could she risk Allana's?

As painful as the answer was, Tenel Ka knew it would only hurt her more if she chose otherwise.

"We must return to Hapes," Tenel Ka stated. "I cannot endanger my daughter's well-being." Petel and everyone else aboard the _Queen_ was sworn to secrecy about Allana being aboard; should word ever get out that the death of the Queen Mother's daughter was falsified, Tenel Ka had promised that everyone aboard the Battle Dragon would be executed.

And until Tenel Ka got into safe contact with Han and Leia again, Allana would be with Tenel Ka, even if they couldn't always be side-by-side (especially not in the public of the Hapes Consortium).

Petel nodded. "Very well, my queen." She turned and left.

Tenel Ka sighed. While she didn't regret protecting Allana, she still felt like a coward.

. . .

With Leia sitting in the copilot seat again, the _Millennium Falcon_ rocketed toward Coruscant's skies under Han's piloting yoke. But just as they were reaching the heavens, both of their eyes widened as a fleet of Galactic Alliance starfighters descended from space firing lasers at his ship.

Immediately, Han took the _Falcon_ into a dive toward the worldwide cityscape below while jinking and juking the YT-1300 to and fro to avoid the fire from above. Still, the vessel was rocked by hits that did get by Han's piloting skills, much to his nervous chagrin.

But thankfully, the shields, which had time to recharge since the _Falcon_ escaped the battle surrounding the planet, held on like a cocoon protecting what might be the last of the Jedi Order.

"Why are they firing on us?" Han wondered aloud. "We're on their side!"

At that moment, Jaina had entered the cockpit.

"The Mandos!" she exclaimed. "They work for Daala; they were sent to kill us!"

"How do you know that, Jaina?" Leia asked.

"It's public knowledge that she and Boba Fett are buddies!" Jaina replied as the _Falcon_ was still rocked by laser strikes. "Of course she'd have the Mandos at her beck and call!"

"Which means that if the Mandos were sent by Daala to destroy the Jedi," Leia said.

"Then she'd have no problem sicking the GA military on us, either!" Han concluded even as he still piloted the _Falcon_ downward.

Soon, the YT-1300 reached Coruscant's cityscape and immediately plunged into the midst of its sky traffic and obstacle course of buildings. Yet Han maneuvered the _Falcon_ further and further down to the Vongformed depths of the planet even as the GA starfighters continued to follow, raining deadly lasers at their legendary quarry.

"We're gonna have to lose 'em somewhere down here!" Han exclaimed.

He then leveled the _Falcon_ out once she and the pursuing fighters were within Vongformed territory. Still, the evasive maneuvers on Han's part continued as he tried to find someplace where he could shake the tail he'd picked up from above.

"You know, I'd hate to kill anyone we might know who's chasin' us," Han said, "but can someone man those cannons?"

"I'll take dorsal again," Leia said as she unstrapped herself from her seat and stood up.

"I'll take ventral then," Jaina said as she joined her mother in leaving the cockpit.

Moments later, both women were in their declared seats, firing lasers at the GA fighters chasing them.

However, neither of them were shooting to kill. Instead, they each fired warning shots around the fighters, with several of those shots scoring hits on the Vongformed landscape. Many of those shots, in turn, ended up bursting apart sizable chunks of infrastructure whose careening paths forced the GA pilots to veer away.

At least one chunk of infrastructure impacted against an X-wing, destroying its port S-foil. Thankfully, the pilot immediately jettisoned himself before his ship ended up crashing several storeys below.

Eventually, the winding path of Vongformed buildings ahead of the _Falcon_ and her pursuers led to Han activating his ship's belly turret and firing it ahead. One building had a giant hole blown into it, one sizable enough for the _Falcon_ to zoom through, which, naturally, meant that the pursuers could, and did, do the same.

But Han repeated the pattern with several more buildings over the course of the next three minutes. During this time, he hoped that what he really wanted from this tactic would work.

It stood to reason that, at some point, the damage done by the Yuuzhan Vong's terraforming from nearly two decades prior would start to show somewhere on Coruscant, at least in the planet's bowels. While many of the larger buildings that housed businesses, homes, and the like in the upper echelons of the planet were more or less safe from structural damage, those buildings that had gone completely forgotten might not be sound because of disuse.

And that was even if the Vong had never conquered the world in the first place. So whatever effects they could have had would only make things worse, Han figured.

Then it happened. As the belly turret opened up a hole in another building ahead, Han saw that it shook as if from an earthquake.

Thus, he poured even more speed into the _Falcon_ so that she was well ahead of her pursuers once she entered the hole.

And, as if on cue, the building suddenly collapsed, with none of the GA fighters getting a chance to pass through the hole. They all scrambled, twisting and turning in the air in an effort to get away from the collapsing building while simultaneously trying to avoid hitting either each other or the other buildings around them.

Once the dust cleared, the _Millennium Falcon_ was nowhere to be seen.

But not because she had been destroyed with the collapsing building; but because she had finally managed to find a path under Han's hand in the midst of the maze of Vongformed buildings that lost the GA fighters.

Han would never thank the Yuuzhan Vong for anything that they had done throughout the entirety of their invasion. And he certainly would have never admitted that he would have (almost) been grateful that their invasion managed to (probably) help the _Falcon_ escape (at least indirectly).


	42. Chapter 42

Aiming for the fuel cells of the crashed Z-95 Headhunter, Krayt fired blue lightning from the fingertips of his right hand and blew the useless ship up. He paid no further attention to the flaming vessel before he turned and started to run through the Vongformed underworld of Coruscant to where he sensed the rapidly-moving presence of Luke Skywalker.

Krayt sensed several Jedi surrounding Skywalker, including that dreadful nephew of his, Jacen Solo; it was obvious that he wouldn't be treated warmly when he met them. But he kept in mind that Skywalker was not only the best ally he could have should they ever encounter Abeloth face-to-face, but now he was also his best chance of leaving Coruscant.

Following Ship's victory over him in their dogfight, Krayt, even as he wrestled with the controls of his falling Headhunter, had sent out one last broadcast across the encrypted band that his One Sith followers used aboard their starfighters.

"Do not worry about me!" he had announced. "Focus on destroying Abeloth! Follow her into hyperspace if you have to! And disregard my threat about not destroying the Sith Meditation Sphere; if you find it, destroy it! I will find my own way off of Coruscant!" He had then reasserted his concentration into controlling his inevitable crash-landing.

Now, as he traversed the Vongformed depths, Krayt sensed that the presences of Skywalker and all those other Jedi were getting closer to him at an accelerated rate. It was as if they were aboard a ship, which was very likely; why that was the case, Krayt didn't know, but he intended to find out once he met them.

The ruler of the One Sith also found that he was unable to sense any of his followers or Abeloth in the system. If Abeloth had been destroyed, Krayt would have been able to sense it vividly through the Force even if he had been preoccupied with his crash-landing; so he figured that she must have decided to leave the Coruscant system. Of course, the deaths of any of his One Sith in the battle above might have escaped Krayt's Force-senses during the crash, so as to who died and who went after Abeloth, the Sith Master really had no idea.

But even assuming that all of them did go after Abeloth, Krayt didn't expect any of his followers to succeed in finishing her off. He only made the order during his rapid descent to Coruscant so that Abeloth could at least be weakened by losing more avatars; but she would not lose them all, Krayt knew. And he certainly didn't expect Ship to be bested by any of the One Sith aside from Krayt; that Sphere got off a lucky shot, that was all, the ruler of the One Sith reasoned.

Krayt was soon brought out of his reverie as he skidded to a stop, the presences of the Jedi were coming in quickly, followed closely by several non-Force-sensitive figures. The Sith Master hurriedly took refuge inside the doorway of a decrepit building and watched as the infamous _Millennium Falcon_ soared overhead. A squadron of Galactic Alliance starfighters were firing lasers in her wake, threatening to destroy the Jedi presences inside.

Krayt growled and set off on foot again as he followed the trail that the _Falcon_ and her pursuers took. Within seconds, he was able to catch up using Force-speed; time slowed down long enough for him to stand beneath the ground above which the legendary YT-1300 flew.

However, Krayt was soon forced to drop out of this state, and time once again resumed its normal course in the Sith Master's perceptions. As such, the _Falcon_ and her pursuers soared away at an inhuman rate.

Again, Krayt put on a burst of Force-speed and hoped that whatever hiding spot that Han Solo found for his precious vessel, it would be soon.

Because Krayt feared that his powers would not be able to withstand the strain.

And sure enough, by the time that the _Falcon_ had finally lost her pursuers and found a hiding place, Krayt felt as if he were near death.

. . .

Not long after his father found a sizable pit within a Yuuzhan Vong-excavated grotto for the _Falcon_ to hide within, Jacen felt the faint yet disturbingly familiar presence of the Sith who tortured him all those years ago.

The man who looked as if he had been created by the Vong was nearby. And Jacen couldn't help but stand up within the crowded space of the _Falcon_'s rec area and step away from the opaquely-covered hovercart that had Danni's unconscious form inside.

"Jacen, what is it?" Jaina asked from across the rec area. She then moved through the assortment of Jedi who had sat themselves on the deck to get to her brother.

For now, Jaina only wanted to see what her brother was up to; she thought that it would be a more productive activity than to actively absorb what had happened back at the Jedi Temple. The Jedi around her, including the Masters who survived, seemed to be doing just that as they had their heads bowed in silent grief.

If there was work to be done, Jaina thought, she could grieve more properly later. She wouldn't bother anyone else, not even Cilghal, Corran, Octa, or Kyp, when they had time to spare like they did now, but for herself, Jaina didn't want to waste time.

Once Jaina reached her brother's side, Jacen looked back at her with a mixture of fear and anger.

"It's him," he said.

"Him who?" Jaina asked.

"The Sith... who tortured me."

He then turned away and worked his way past the grieving Jedi to the _Falcon_'s boarding ramp.

"Jacen, wait," Jaina said just as she joined her brother at the now-lowered ramp. "Let me come with you. We can face him together."

Jacen looked like he was about to argue. But he shut his mouth just as promptly as he had opened it and nodded. He then looked past his sister's shoulder, prompting Jaina herself to look behind her and see both her and Jacen's parents standing there. Han and Leia bore deceptively neutral expressions.

"Jaina," Leia said, "you're sure this man can be trusted?" She was obviously referring to Jacen, as neither she nor Han had been informed of the proof yet.

"Mom, Dad, it's Jacen," Jaina said. "He's not a clone, he's not Caedus reborn, and while we haven't figured out why you and I can't sense him, it's him. It's our Jacen."

There was a moment's pause. Then Han was the one to hug his son before Leia got the chance.

"Oh, I missed you, boy," Han said with tears in his eyes. "I missed you so much! I thought we'd lost you!"

Tears formed in Jacen's own eyes. "I missed you, too, Dad."

Naturally, Leia joined in next to her husband and son's hugging and crying; Jaina stood back, having already been through this experience days earlier when she received proof-positive that this man really was her brother. Still, her eyes were also moist from this family reunion as she smiled upon it.

However, Jaina's eyes weren't moist enough for her not to notice one disgusted spectator. From inside the passenger compartment, she saw her cousin Ben, seated near the opaquely-covered hovercart carrying his father Luke's comatose form, regarding the Solo reunion with a barely subtle amount of disgust.

Jaina ignored Ben; she understood that right now, he would be unable to accept that the man who looked like his mother's killer was really his innocent cousin. He would have to come to accept that eventually, but Jaina decided to give Ben some space.

Once the Solo family reunion died down and Jacen brought his parents up to speed on whom he sensed out there, all four members of the family had stepped out of the _Falcon_ to meet the Sith who had tortured Jacen a decade ago.

They found him a minute later, sitting up against a doorway, wheezing heavily. The Sith Master looked up at the Solo family with disdain; the family, in turn, gave a combined glare that wasn't exactly friendly, either.

But, obviously, Jacen's scowl was the deepest.

"It _is_ you," Jacen stated contemptuously.

"Where is Skywalker?" the Sith asked, all but ignoring Jacen's tone.

"My uncle?" Jacen asked, his hatred for the man still level. "Still in a coma, thanks to you."

The Sith Master's wheeze managed to turn into a sigh of irritation. "So he failed."

"Who failed?" Jaina was the one to ask.

"Never mind that," the dark sider said. "If Skywalker is not brought out of his coma, the galaxy is doomed."

"Because of Abeloth," Jacen said.

The Sith's eyes widened as he narrowed his concentration upon Jacen. "You know of her?"

"I felt her even before she entered this system," Jacen confirmed. "She's gone now."

"But not dead," the Sith stated. "The Grand Master of the Jedi Order must aid me in bringing about the demise of Abeloth. I feel it through the Force."

"Maybe you shouldn't have put him in a coma," Han chimed in contemptuously, "if you needed him on his feet."

"And he should have never dispatched an investigation to Korriban," the Sith countered. "If only he minded his own business." He once again directed his glare up at Jacen. "If only you had remained lost to the galaxy, if not outright dead."

"You were the one responsible for everything that went wrong after the Yuuzhan Vong War," Jaina stated angrily. "You cloned my brother and had him wreak terrible destruction on the galaxy. Billions, if not trillions, of lives were lost, including my aunt, all because of you! Our family was torn apart because of you!"

"You had Kyle Katarn killed," Leia said with horror. "And my brother put into a coma."

"_Had_ Katarn killed?" The Sith rolled his eyes. "I decapitated him myself. Your brother's coma, that was something I had one of my servants perform. And, yes, I happily admit to being the cause of the Second Galactic Civil War; I even had a little hand in the Killik crisis. The dark side flourished from the former, and I relish the victory that I had gained. But, unfortunately, I had been forced out of hiding because of Abeloth; and I need Luke Skywalker's help to destroy her."

Jacen growled as he reached down with both hands to lift the weakened man up to his feet.

"Why should we believe that?!" Jacen practically shouted. "Tell me why I shouldn't just kill you right here, right now! Huh! HUH!"

The Sith Master cackled, only to end up coughing for his trouble.

"I know," he said, "that... it is... against... the Jedi Code... to give in... to those... kind of... emotions." He continued to cackle and cough interchangeably. "It is... of the dark side... that you yearn... for revenge."

Jacen sneered. "Did you forget I'm a disciple of Vergere? She taught me there was no light or dark side-"

"And that justifies you killing me to sate your own desires, Jedi?" the Sith pointed out, his wheezing lightening. "To avenge what was done to you, your family, the Jedi Order overall? It will do you no good; and we both know that Abeloth must be stopped. For that, you need me, and you know that I tell the truth in this matter."

Jacen threw the Sith back upon the ground; the tattooed man once again chuckled as he sat himself up again.

"I will give you, all of you, your chance to avenge your grievances upon me. I assure you, you will not succeed; you will all be dead, whether it is from my hand or from a hand that I command, not long after Abeloth is gone from this universe. But for now, we must all put aside our interests, whether they are as transcendental as mine or as petty as yours, or all life in the galaxy will die. And while we are allies, I can help Luke Skywalker come out of his coma."

"How?" Leia asked.

"I will tell you... if you bring me aboard the _Millennium Falcon_."

"Uh-uh, no way," Han said. "I'm not letting you anywhere near-"

"If you do not allow me time to heal and restore my strength in a more controlled environment than this," the Sith said as he waved around at their Vongformed surroundings, "then Skywalker will live out the rest of his days as a breathing corpse. And Abeloth will kill and absorb every living being she can until she is all there is."

"You're a Sith, why should we trust you to keep your word?" Jaina inquired.

"Because if I were not serious about helping Skywalker come out of his coma," the Sith said, "I would not be here. I would continue to be in hiding. But I really do need him to aid me in defeating Abeloth. Now, may we quit this pointless interrogation and would any of you be so kind as to help me back to your ship?"

A moment passed between the Solo family as they all looked at each other wordlessly. When they all returned their attention to the Sith Master, it was Han who said, "All right. We'll take you back to the _Falcon_. But just remember, you'll be surrounded by a buncha Jedi, so no funny business."

"Duly noted," the Sith replied wryly.

Moments later, the Sith Master was carefully gliding through the air, as if he were flying forward, under Jaina's Force-power as she and the rest of her family walked reluctantly back to the _Falcon_.

Once during the brief trip, Jaina thought about giving the Sith an "accidental" slip-up in her effort and let her charge abruptly dip down through the air. But a slight pain in her head prevented her from doing that.

"I would not think about that again, Jedi," the Sith called down.

The rest of the Solo clan spared Jaina a brief look after they all stopped in their trek back to the _Falcon_ and before they looked back up at the Sith.

"I prefer to have a smooth journey," he said.

They resumed their walk back to the YT-1300 without further incident.


	43. Chapter 43

Belok Rhal, leader of the Mandalorian death squad that was assigned to besiege the Jedi Temple of Coruscant, stood in the Council Chamber. He idly wondered how this was one of the few locations in the Temple not to be affected by the siege as he waited for the last report to come in.

Eventually, the last one did.

"That's it, Rhal," a feminine voice responded through the commlink in his helmet. "We've combed through every inch of the Temple; all the Jedi have either died or escaped."

"Have you laid the charges yet?" Rhal asked.

"They're primed and ready," the feminine voice answered.

"Then let's go get the Jedi who escaped," Rhal said.

Minutes later, Rhal led the remainder of his forces out of the Temple as they flew away on their jetpacks. Once he and his people were far enough away from the location of their siege, he took out a detonator from his belt, pressed a button, and replaced the detonator just as promptly into its previous position.

Neither he nor any of his fellow Mandos looked back as the Jedi Temple imploded on itself, raising a cloud of dust as it crumbled to its foundations.

. . .

Since she lacked the advantage of having a jetpack like her trio of Mando pursuers, Tahiri was forced to Force-leap across the tops of airspeeders amidst Coruscant's sky traffic. As a result, the mercs on her tail had no choice but simply to keep up; firing upon unarmed civilians with either lasers or rockets was something they weren't paid to do.

And even as she ran and jumped for her life, Tahiri wondered if these particular Mandos were holding back for moral reasons. She doubted it, but then, it was possible they each might have a conscience.

Still, regardless of whatever moral compunctions these Mandos might or might not have, Tahiri knew that if she didn't lose them soon, she would tire out and they would kill her (and that was assuming they didn't just let her plunge to the depths of Coruscant if she made a wrong jump between speeders). She was also unwilling to bet that they would simply run out of fuel before she became exhausted enough for them to catch and kill her, even if they had been chasing her since she escaped their initial attack at her apartment several kilometers back.

Of course, Tahiri did have a destination in mind that she hoped to reach before she became really tuckered out. When the Jedi Temple became a non-option since she saw that it was besieged as she was being chased by the three mercs earlier, she silently pleaded to the Force that the Imperial embassy of Coruscant wasn't also being besieged.

Thankfully, it wasn't, as Tahiri saw once it came to view. She thus hastened her pace in spite of her growing exhaustion.

It soon became obvious to the three Mandos chasing her where she was going; and they knew that if they made it to the embassy, they might cause an incident that could potentially start a war between the Imperial Remnant and Mandalore. So it wasn't really all that shocking to Tahiri once they decided to finally fire lasers at her back to prevent her from reaching the embassy's potential safety.

However, Tahiri's constant and erratic movements across the skylanes made it nearly impossible for her pursuers to get a good shot at her. Thus, it was no wonder to her that the rapidity of their fire only intensified.

And, naturally, airspeeders started to careen into buildings and explode while other speeders and vehicles collided into each other to either blow up on the spot or simply become wrecks that began long tumbles to the depths below.

At this point in her life, after all the pain she suffered and the misery that she herself doled out as a pawn to Darth Caedus, Tahiri was surprised that she still cared about the lives that were now being lost because of these Mandos. And she couldn't help but feel a great sense of guilt even as she never lost focus of just trying to stay alive long enough to make it to the Imperial embassy.

If media throughout the Galactic Alliance chose to blame her for all of these deaths instead of the Mandos who caused them directly, Tahiri found that she wouldn't be able to muster a counterargument to such a claim.

In spite of whatever guilt she was feeling at the moment, however, Tahiri knew that if she had any chance of contributing anymore good to the galaxy, whatever form that good might take, she still had to make it to that embassy.

Soon, she was only a few dozen meters away. And by this point, the Mandos decided to launch rockets at her retreating form.

But once this happened, Tahiri decided that she wouldn't have anymore innocent deaths on her conscience because of these mercs. So, as she was in midair between speeders, she quickly turned around and used the Force to redirect the rockets right back at their firers.

The impacts of those rockets hit the Mandos square against each of their chestplates and detonated. With that explosion behind her, Tahiri decided to settle on top of the speeder that she just landed on and looked back; all three Mandos were now falling lifelessly to Coruscant's Vongformed underworld.

She turned back and made one final leap where her feet touched the roof of the Imperial embassy. Five seconds later, as she stood up from her landing crouch, a security detail of stormtroopers appeared from the roof's entrance. They quickly surrounded Tahiri with their carbines pointed directly at her, with one of them shouting, "Get down on the ground now!" just as the circle was complete.

Tahiri complied without hesitation. But before any of the troops could move to place her in stuncuffs, Jagged Fel's voice called out, "Stand down!"

Jag then stepped into the circle and said to the stormtroopers, "This woman will be our guest, not our prisoner. She will join me presently; you are all dismissed."

None of the troops offered any argument. They simply disassembled the circle wordlessly, lined up, and returned from whence they came.

"You saw what happened to the Temple?" Jag asked worriedly.

Tahiri nodded. "Of course I did."

"Then come inside. We got a lot to plan."

. . .

Somewhere in the Transitory Mists, a cargo ship delivering foodstuffs for Hapes dropped out of hyperspace for a course correction. However, instead of staying for a few moments just to make that correction, the pilot and copilot saw a strange-looking vessel floating aimlessly ahead.

"What manner of ship is that, Oile?" the copilot, a light-skinned Hapan female, asked her wife.

The pilot, a dark-skinned Hapan female, shook her head as she retained her view of the vessel. "I don't know, Goya. Check for lifesigns."

Goya did as instructed from the panel before her and found that there was a faint sign aboard. After relaying that information to Oile, the latter said, "Open a channel."

When a channel was opened, Oile asked, "This is the Hapan cargo ship _Deliverance_. Do you require any assistance?"

"I would very much appreciate some, thank you," a feminine voice responded moments later. "I am in need of medical attention."

"What's the nature of your ailment?" Oile asked.

"Consumption," the voice answered.

"Consumption?" Oile inquired.

"It's... difficult to explain," the voice said. "Will you allow me aboard your vessel?"

"Her lifesigns are very weak," Goya said. "We should help."

"Very well," Oile said. "We'll dock with your ship. Uh... considering how... unusual your vessel is, can you help us find a place where we can make a docking ring between our ships?"

"Of course," the voice said.

A minute later, after the _Deliverance_ was docked with the mysterious vessel, Oile and Goya went into the latter ship to meet their charge. Goya carried a medical kit, ready to help in any way she could.

"Ah, yes," the woman whom Oile and Goya met said. "You will help very nicely."

Then, suddenly, the woman turned into a horrible fanged creature with tentacles. Neither Oile nor Goya had a chance to turn and run back to the _Deliverance_ before the tentacles wrapped themselves around both screaming women.

Mere moments later, after both Oile and Goya were absorbed into Abeloth, who had returned to her form of Akanah Norand Goss Pell, the knowledge from the women flooded into the entity's mind.

And from that knowledge, Abeloth gained a clearer perspective of how she could rule the galaxy as Queen of the Stars.

"Ship," she said aloud, "I will need you to find yourself a hiding place in these Mists. At least for a time. I cannot be seen with you if I am to successfully rule this galaxy."

_I will not argue over this_, Ship replied. _I will do as you ask this time_.

After the _Deliverance_ was separated from Ship, they went their separate ways as Abeloth piloted the cargo ship for Hapes.


	44. Chapter 44

When her father Gavar told her that she would be allowed into the Circle Chambers, Vestara Khai walked inside with some mild trepidation. Once she stood before the Circle of Lords, she kept her Force-presence to herself as best as she could.

"Tyro Khai," Grand Lord Vol announced, "given your report of the destruction of the _Dark Dagger_ and the loss of her crew, both when the ChaseMaster was destroyed and at Pydyr, we did not make this decision lightly. While several members of the Circle of Lords have expressed their concerns about sending another task force well away from Kesh, as this could mean the potential loss of a third crew, other members of the Circle, myself among them, have taken into account what kind of monster you describe Abeloth to be.

"As that report has been corroborated by the records from the starfighter that you returned in, Tyro Khai, Abeloth appears to be a very powerful entity who threatens the existence of all life in the galaxy. Those members of this Circle who were against sending another task force believed that if we were to stay in our sector of the galaxy, we would be untouched by Abeloth; again, I, and those who have agreed with me, have stated that if this entity has her way, she will eventually reach us and destroy us anyway.

"Thus, the Circle of Lords has come to a unanimous, if not a reluctantly unanimous, decision: a larger task force than either the _Eternal Crusader_ or _Dark Dagger_ will be dispatched to confront and destroy Abeloth before she becomes too powerful... assuming that hasn't happened already."

Once Grand Lord Vol stopped talking, High Lord Sarasu Taalon stood up. "Tyro Khai, I will lead a task force of eleven ChaseMaster frigates, including my own _Black Wave_, to hunt down and destroy Abeloth. Since you, by default, have the most experience with this entity out of the entire Lost Tribe of the Sith, you will thus join me aboard my ship. As well, your father shall, too."

Vestara bowed her head in respect even as she hid her mixed feelings of relief and anxiety. She was relieved that the Circle of Lords had enough sense to recognize the threat that Abeloth posed, but she was also anxious because now she had to go out and confront the entity again; Vestara had a feeling she would have to had the Circle agreed with her about Abeloth, yet now that she had her way, she could barely contain her fear.

That, and while she was glad that she would have her father at her side for this mission, she was scared for him; she was particularly concerned as to whether or not he would die because of Abeloth.

"Thank you, My Lord," Vestara said before she stood up straight again. She hoped that none of the Circle felt her feelings through the Force.

"We will depart tomorrow," Taalon declared. "Make what preparations you can, Tyro."

"This assembly is adjourned," Vol declared.

. . .

Hours after the Jedi Temple was destroyed by the Mandalorians, Jagged Fel and Tahiri Veila stepped aboard the _Millennium Falcon_ via its landing ramp. Jaina and Jag hugged each other almost instantly out of relief even as the former's parents and brother made a loose circle around the couple.

Naturally, Tahiri made herself as far away from Jacen as she could; and, of course, she avoided eye contact with him.

Jacen decided not to press the issue with her; right now, they had to find out what to do next.

"I'm so glad you're all right," Jag said in relief.

"Me, too," Jaina said. "I honestly thought that after the Temple was attacked, Daala might-"

"Try to get rid of me as well?" Jag asked as he and Jaina finally stepped away from each other. He shook his head. "Even her arrogance won't let her forget that she can't just launch a war with the Imperial Remnant. She can't touch me."

"What, this isn't considered going to war with the Remnant?" Han asked incredulously. "Jaina's part of the Jedi Order, the organization that just got attacked by the Mandalorians! Jag, you should have your Star Destroyers in orbit of this planet start-"

"You and I both know I can't just do that, Han," Jag interrupted. "There's no solid proof that those Mandalorians even work for her; yes, Daala has been known to associate with them in the past, but that's not enough for me to just declare war with the entire Galactic Alliance. What, you thought that I was just supposed to march into Daala's office and straight-up shoot her with a blaster or beat her to death like an idiot?"

When Han opened his mouth, Jag cut him off right away. "I know that's what you'd do, Han, but I have no choice but to be more responsible than that."

Han sighed in defeat. "I miss the Rebellion," he muttered.

"How'd you find us?" Jacen asked.

"Tahiri located your Force-presences for me as soon as she reached the Imperial embassy," Jag explained. "We had to make sure you were all okay; we couldn't risk sending out a transmission that could have been tracked by either the GA or the Mandos."

"You made sure you weren't followed by anyone on your way here?" Leia asked.

Tahiri nodded. "We made some stops along the way. We didn't pick up any tails, especially since we kept to the Vongformed underworld the whole way here."

"Well, now that you're here, do you have a plan, Jag?" Han asked. "Please tell us you can do _something_ with your power as Imperial Head of State."

Jag nodded. "After the Mandalorians demolished the Jedi Temple-"

"The Temple's gone?!" Kyp Durron asked in shock.

When the Solos, Jag, and Tahiri all looked, they found that several Jedi, including all of the Masters who escaped the siege, had gathered near the _Falcon_'s exit.

Jag sighed and nodded. "The Temple is no more, I'm afraid to report." He waited for the murmurs of renewed grief and despair from most of the Jedi to die down before he continued. "The Mandos are now searching Coruscant for all the remaining Jedi. What I think we should do is capture at least one of them alive and bring 'em back here to extract a confession about Daala's involvement."

Before any of the Jedi could voice their opinions on that plan, a laugh rang out from the passenger compartment. The assembly of Jedi who were gathered near the Solos, Jag, and Tahiri parted ways with looks of distrust and even hatred at the tattooed figure who now walked among them.

"Yes, I do not see how extracting a confession could ever go wrong," the man said once he joined Jag and the others. "Especially when it aligns oh so well with Jedi dogma." Sarcasm dripped from his tone.

"Who are you?" Jag asked with probably the least hostile tone that this man would receive during his stay here.

"You need not know my name," the man replied, "until I say it is time for you to know. But what matters right now, more than your little war with Chief of State Daala and her forces, is that Luke Skywalker must be brought out of his coma before it is too late; before Abeloth becomes too powerful and overruns the galaxy."

"Okay, first of all, I just said that I'm not at war with Daala, Second of all, does anyone wanna fill me in on what this guy's talkin' about?" Jag asked.

"It's a very long story, from what he's told us," Jacen chimed in. "But suffice it to say, and as loathe as I am to admit it, he's right. Basically, Abeloth is an ancient and powerful Force-entity that can absorb and assimilate people so that they become copies of her; she's been set free very recently, and if she's not stopped, she'll make Daala and even this guy here look like playground bullies when she's done with the galaxy."

"For your curiosity, she was the mysterious fleet that appeared over Coruscant mere hours ago," the tattooed man elaborated.

"I see," Jag said after a moment of absorbing what he was being told. "So, Mister Tattoo, if you don't mind me calling you that, can I ask how you intend to get Luke Skywalker out of his coma if he's so important in defeating this Abeloth?"

"Yeah, you didn't tell us how you'd do that yet," Han pointed out to "Mister Tattoo." "Got any ideas now?"

"Now that I have recovered through my meditation," the Sith said, "I believe it is the time to do so."

"Well, don't keep us in suspense," Jaina said wryly. "Spill."

"The follower of mine who put Skywalker into his coma had learned his techniques from the Theran Listeners of Nam Chorios," the Sith explained. "Of course, after Master Cilghal explained to me that my follower was killed during the Mandalorian siege on your Temple, that makes bringing Skywalker back to this world much more difficult, but not impossible." The Sith had asked Cilghal about Luke's condition almost immediately after he boarded the _Falcon_ and before he entered his meditative recovery; while the Mon Calamari had been hesitant, she was ultimately compliant in explaining the situation to the evil human.

"None of us are hearing your plan yet," Han stated impatiently.

"My plan, Captain Solo," Mister Tattoo said, "is to get Skywalker to Nam Chorios and elicit the aid of the Theran Listeners of bringing your precious Grand Master out of his coma. They may be the best people to bring him back to life, so to speak, after the man who placed him where he is now."

"Which, of course, means getting him off this planet," Jaina pointed out. "But we can't, because even with my dad's piloting skills, we can't just get past the GA forces in orbit of Coruscant. And Jag's forces up there wouldn't be enough to go against the Alliance's Star Destroyers even if he decided, 'Screw this, I'm going to war with Daala.'"

And right after Jaina said that, Jag snapped his fingers in realization. "I wouldn't have to dedicate all my Star Destroyers to countering Daala's, nor would I have to formally declare war with her."

"What do you mean, Jag?" Jaina asked.

"I'm assuming that when all of you wanna escape Coruscant," Jag suggested, "you'll wanna do it in one big, quick move, right?"

"Time is a factor against Abeloth," Mister Tattoo affirmed.

"Then I think I have an idea," Jag said. "One much more efficient than getting a confession from one of the Mandos searching this planet."


	45. Chapter 45

The day after the Mandalorian siege on the Jedi Temple, one of the Imperial Remnant's six Star Destroyers that was orbiting Coruscant, the _Gilad Pellaeon_, started to move away from the planet. It received hails from both the Galactic Alliance and half of the Remnant Destroyers; all of the hails came from commanders who wanted to know what the _Pellaeon_'s crew thought they were doing when she wasn't scheduled to go anywhere.

Once the rogue Star Destroyer was several thousand kilometers away from Coruscant, it began opening fire on all of the GA Destroyers even as it began cruising back toward the planet.

Naturally, the GA Destroyers opened up with their own turbolasers. Within moments, the shields of the _Gilad Pellaeon_ started to wane away at an alarming rate; yet the rogue Destroyer held her course.

But then another Remnant Destroyer, _Rukh's Legacy_, headed along the same course that the _Pellaeon_ had taken. Then the second rogue Star Destroyer turned around to fly side-by-side with the first and opened fire on the GA Destroyers.

And just as the _Legacy_ was now taking hits, a third Imperial Star Destroyer, _Redeemer_, repeated the exact same flight pattern as the _Pellaeon_ and _Legacy_. And like her sisters, she got into position next to _Rukh's Legacy_ and opened fire on the GA Star Destroyers.

And it was at this point that, even as the third rogue Destroyer was taking hits from the GA capital ships, the latter vessels began to turn some of their turbolasers on the Imperial Destroyers that had yet to abandon their current positions.

. . .

In Jag's office in the Imperial embassy, he sat behind his desk watching a holographic representation of the new battle that was going on in the space above Coruscant. On the other side of the desk, Tahiri watched, too.

Once the GA Destroyers turned some of their weapons on the Remnant capital ships that Jag didn't order to abandon their posts, he looked through the holograph and nodded.

Tahiri then shut her eyes and communed a single thought to Jaina, who was elsewhere on Coruscant.

_Now_.

. . .

Standing between her seated parents in the _Millennium Falcon_'s cockpit, Jaina opened her eyes upon receiving that simple statement from Tahiri.

"Go."

Less than a second after his daughter said the word, Han had his ship rocket out from her hiding spot and shoot for Coruscant's skies. He went so fast that none of the local authorities on the planet had time to mobilize any of their forces to intercept the _Falcon_.

Once the YT-1300 had cleared Coruscant's atmosphere and was within the planet's orbit, Han really pushed his ship to the limit to clear away from the raging Star Destroyer battle currently going on.

"It's still gonna take us sometime before we clear the gravity well!" Han announced, not taking anymore attention away from the task at hand.

"The GA Destroyers have each launched a starfighter squadron for us," Leia announced after looking at her panel.

"Of course they have," Han muttered wryly. "Can't believe I'm gonna be routing for TIEs instead of X-wings this time around."

By the time the GA Star Destroyers' squadrons closed the gap and all began firing on the _Falcon_'s rear, she had just reached the line of "rogue" Imperial Star Destroyers. Passing that line, those Destroyers each launched their own complements of TIE fighters from their hangar bays and they immediately engaged the GA X-wings, Y-wings, and other Rebellion-style starfighters.

Of course, considering the fact that the TIE squads that were launched were outnumbered by the GA fighters, the _Falcon_, of course, was obligated to dodge and weave through and across every clear lane that Han could find in space. And even then, there were still the typical hits to her aft shields that were essentially unavoidable, as Han came to learn from way too much experience.

But the experience still wasn't enough to dull the adrenaline coursing through him as he flew. And even that adrenaline couldn't be hampered by the guilt that he would no doubt feel once they cleared the Coruscant system on account of the GA fighters that were now being blown out of the sky by the _Falcon_'s belly turret and dorsal cannons (which were now each being helmed by a Jedi whom Han knew nothing about).

Still, after over half a dozen GA fighters were blown out of the sky by the YT-1300's guns, and the legendary transport ship had lost more than half her shields, Han finally managed to clear Coruscant's gravity well, quickly plotted a course, and pulled down on the hyperdrive's lever.

They were now on their way to Nam Chorios.

. . .

The _Deliverance_ touched down several dozen kilometers from the Fountain Palace of Hapes in a prescribed hangar bay in the planet's capital city of Ta'a Chume'Dan.

According to the memories that Abeloth had attained from Oile and Goya, this was the procedure that the foodstuffs the _Deliverance_ was about to unload had to undergo for royal security reasons. Apparently, treachery within the Hapes Consortium was so bad that measures like these were taken to ensure that nothing could go wrong with the delivery of these foodstuffs.

From her dual position in both the pilot and copilot seats of the _Deliverance_, in which she had adopted the guises of both Oile and Goya, Abeloth found herself giddy with anticipation. Under her rule, this kind of treachery would not be tolerated.

Because everyone would love their Queen of the Stars; no one would dare betray her like they would for a mere, pathetic mortal like Tenel Ka Djo.

When the time came, both "Oile" and "Goya" disembarked from the _Deliverance_ so that the foodstuffs could undergo their routine inspection for poisons and the like. As Abeloth waited for the investigation to conclude, standing around displaying impatience in both her Oile and Goya forms, she took note of all the holocams that were stationed within the specialized hangar bay.

With a simple willing through the Force, not betrayed by any hand gesture or any other type of bodily display, Abeloth used the Force to fuzz up the recording mechanisms within the holocams.

Then she sprang into action.

Both her Oile and Goya forms revealed themselves to be parts of the hive-minded monster that they really were. Snarling at her intended victims, both Abeloths launched themselves at the Fountain Palace security guards, who all fired impotent laser bolts at the two monsters that did virtually no damage to either of her.

At an exponential rate, after one of the Abeloths wrapped one of her tentacles around a security guard and plunged that tentacle down the victim's throat, the victim instantly became another Abeloth, another conduit for the monster's abominable existence.

In minutes, all of the guards, including the ones who were aboard the _Deliverance_ conducting their inspection, were assimilated into Abeloth, as parts of their beloved Queen of the Stars.

All of the Abeloths then assumed their previous positions before the attack had commenced, and the Force-disruption on all of the holocams was lifted.

As if nothing had happened at all, the _Deliverance_'s security check went off without a hitch according to what the security cams picked up. Both Oile and Goya bid the guards farewell and departed from the hangar bay within minutes. The guards left not long after with their hovercarts of foodstuffs.

It would not be long now, Abeloth thought gleefully.


	46. Chapter 46

"I hope I enjoy hearing this," was the first thing Daala said as soon as Jag walked into her office. Her tone heavily indicated that she was far from amused after what happened most recently.

Once Jag was seated in one of the guest chairs, he explained, "Chief Daala, I would just like to say, on behalf of the Imperial Remnant, we are sincerely sorry for the incident that took place and-"

"Save it, Fel," Daala interrupted. "Just tell me what your cover story is so we can move on."

"Cover story?" Jag feigned ignorance. "What do you mean?"

"Spare me, Fel. Those 'rogue' Star Destroyers did what they did under your orders so that the _Millennium Falcon_ could escape with the Jedi fugitives that it had aboard."

"Well, Chief Daala, with all due respect, as the Mandalorians would say, that sounds like a bunch of _osik_."

Daala fixed Jag with a glare. "I must say, I honestly don't know why the Mandalorians attacked the Jedi Temple; and while it's true that I have officially declared the Jedi Order as fugitives, the fact that both the GA and these mercenaries are hunting them is a complete coincidence."

Jag had to keep a straight face for that one. It was such a bold-faced lie. Still, he had to wonder for a moment why Daala would be lying about the Mandos.

To him, it didn't make sense why she would be upholding such an egregious lie, and he couldn't see what she had to gain from it. Was it because of the fact that she wanted to distance herself from the Mandalorians on a public front because they generally weren't well-regarded in the GA? If that was the case, Jag had to wonder if Daala really thought that the average citizen in her government was stupid enough to buy such a lie, especially when she actively employed the GA Navy to try to shoot down the _Millennium Falcon_ on two occasions after the Jedi Temple's siege.

Then again, she was an ex-Imperial; Imperials rarely, if ever, had a positive opinion on anyone who was outside their military.

"But that's not at issue here," Daala continued. "What is is that I presume that, in order to maintain your cover, the _Gilad Pellaeon_, _Rukh's Legacy_, and _Redeemer_ are all fugitives in the Imperial Remnant now?" Daala asked.

"They are fugitives, but not for any deceptive reasons," Jag lied. As ordered, once the _Falcon_ was launched into hyperspace, the three "rogue" Destroyers did, too.

"Uh-huh. Well, I'll leave you to hunt down those three Destroyers. Would you like the tracking information that my Star Destroyers received when the _Pellaeon_, _Legacy_, and _Redeemer_ all jumped to hyperspace?"

"That would be most appreciated," Jag said without hesitation.

Daala grinned. "Yes, that also means we managed to track the _Millennium Falcon_, Fel. I've dispatched the _Predator_, one of my Destroyers from another system, to find and destroy it on sight with the tracking information that I had sent. Whatever you thought you'd accomplish with the _Falcon_'s escape will be easily thwarted."

Jag stayed silent for a moment. "Are we done here, Chief Daala?"

"For now."

Jag nodded politely and then stood up to leave.

"Oh, and Head of State Fel?"

Jag turned back to regard Daala.

"There is only so much that diplomatic immunity can do for you before you cross the line," Daala intoned.

Jag said nothing before he turned and left.

. . .

Minutes after the _Millennium Falcon_ dropped out into the Chorios system and docked with Koval Station in orbit of Nam Chorio, Han and Leia headed back to the Jedi-crowded passenger compartment. There, Han had to inform everyone there what their current situation was.

"If we wanna get on the planet, we'll have to shuttle down," Han explained. "If and when we have to get outta here quick, we can't waste time with decontamination protocols to make sure we aren't carrying the Death Seed plague." It was obvious by his tone that he wasn't happy about leaving the _Falcon_ in orbit of Nam Chorios.

"Not all of us have to go," the one Sith that the ship had aboard chimed in. "All of you can stay here and I can go down with Master Skywalker to see that he is revived."

"Uh, no, I don't think that's gonna happen," Kyp Durron spoke up. "I think everyone here would wanna come down."

"I don't think that's a feasible option, Kyp," Han countered.

"Why not?" Kyp asked.

"We just escaped the Galactic Alliance capital as fugitives," Han pointed out. "You think Daala's just gonna let it go at that? If there are gonna be any Star Destroyers comin' after us, we'll need to leave in a hurry, as I just said. And we can't exactly do that if we have to wait for every Jedi to come back aboard the _Falcon_ before we can leave this system."

"And let's not forget, there can't be too many Force-sensitives down there anyway," Leia pointed out. "Nam Chorios is particularly reactive to Force-uses. Using the Force for things like augmenting leaps or a concentrated bout of telekinesis can cause a tornado to occur down there. So the fewer Jedi, and, ideally, no Sith, the better.

"But if it comes to escaping the planet," Leia continued, "where we have to pick up the landing party in a hurry and leave, and that's assuming that you can get past those Golan platforms over there, Han, how are we gonna get rid of the Death Seed plague? I don't think the _Falcon_ has enough disinfectant to completely clean her of what we'd be picking up."

"The Golan platforms can be taken care of," the Sith said.

"How so?" Han asked.

"I have some agents aboard each platform that will make sure that their preventative measures to keep the _Millennium Falcon_ on Nam Chorios will be shut down to allow us enough time to escape," the Sith explained. "I give the order through a comm message, and we can escape. Moreover, I can have my agents transfer a suitable amount of Death Seed disinfectant to make sure your vessel will not carry the plague to the rest of the galaxy."

"You have agents here?" Leia asked.

"I have agents where I think they are necessary," the Sith said with a malicious grin.

"Putting aside that horrifying implication," Corran Horn said, "for the _Falcon_ to make as fast a getaway as possible, only a few people should go down with Master Skywalker, So how do we choose them?" He looked over at Mister Tattoo. "We're certainly not gonna let you choose."

"I will allow you Jedi to deliberate among yourselves," the Sith said, "but my patience will wear thin if you do not choose quickly enough. Moreover, regardless of whatever any of you have to say, I will be joining the Jedi party on the surface of Nam Chorios to see that Master Skywalker is brought out of his coma."

"What gives you the right?" Jacen asked angrily. "We don't need you down there. We're already having to put up with you and your claim that only you and my uncle are the only ones who can defeat Abeloth. So don't stretch our trust in you."

"You will need my help, Jedi, if you wish to find the Theran Listeners," the Sith explained. "You will not be able to find them so easily otherwise. And I do not think that Princess Leia's time on this planet years ago will aid us in our search."

"Why won't we be able to find the Theran Listeners so easily without you?" Kyp was the one to ask.

"As I have explained, the follower of mine who placed Master Skywalker in his coma is from this planet," the Sith elaborated. "He learned his techniques from the Theran Listeners, who, in spite of their status as the healers of Nam Chorios, are so old-fashioned, they do not use modern technology. As such, I make it part of my business to know where such semi-isolationists tend to be."

Jacen sighed. "And you won't just tell us where they are." It wasn't a question.

"Of course not," the Sith replied evenly.

"Fine, you can come," Kyp acquiesced with a frustrated grunt. "But I'll be keeping an eye on you down there."

"I should come in case any medical attention is required," Cilghal chimed in, "just in case anything should go wrong down there. That, and I can help Kyp against the Sith over here in case he tries to betray us."

"I can come, too, Master Cilghal," Tekli said.

Cilghal shook her head. "You stay here and continue to monitor Danni's lifesigns."

"She's getting better, she'll be fine, Master," Tekli said.

"Then I want you to make sure she makes a full recovery, Jedi Tekli," Cilghal commanded.

Tekli nodded reluctantly. "Very well."

"I should come, too," Octa Ramis said.

"I volunteer, as well," Corran chimed in.

"I think it'd be a bad idea," Leia said, "if all four of the Jedi Masters here were to go down. Should anything go wrong down there, there should still be a Master or two up here. And, again, the fewer Force-sensitives, the better. Kyp, Cilghal, I think it'd be wise for the two of you to go down. Corran, Octa, you should stay here."

The Sith chuckled. "When did you become a Jedi Master, Princess Leia?"

"I may not be a Master," Leia said, "but I have more respect among all of them than you ever will."

The Sith sneered but said nothing in response.

"I should come," Jacen said. He then unhooked the lightsaber on his belt and showed it. "I bear my uncle's lightsaber; when he wakes up, he'll want it back." While it was true that anyone else in the landing party could do that job, Jacen doubted that anyone would object, even if it meant one less Force-sensitive down on the planet.

"I wanna come," Ben Skywalker spoke up. "I don't wanna leave my father's side."

"I think that'll be enough people for the landing party," Han said. "Maybe even more than enough. But let's not waste anymore time and just get this over with."

Minutes later, all the members of the landing party were shuttled down to the freezing desert world of Nam Chorios.


	47. Chapter 47

Once the landing party touched down in Nam Chorios's capital city of Hweg Shul, and they were out in the planet's bitter cold, the Sith was the one to take point.

"I will lead you to where we have to go," he said to the rest of the party above the chilling and howling winds.

They then set off, with Cilghal being the one to push the hovercart that contained Luke's comatose form.

During their hour-long journey, the Sith made a commlink call. Over the winds, Jacen couldn't overhear what was being said.

After the Sith replaced his commlink along his belt, Jacen sidled up next to him and asked, "What was that?"

"I fulfilled my promise of making sure that the _Millennium Falcon_ received the disinfectant should a fast escape from this planet become necessary," the Sith explained.

"So you kept your promise, eh?" Jacen asked.

"By necessity, I had to," the Sith replied. "I would not want to leave this planet infected by the Death Seed plague."

"Fair enough," Jacen replied.

They said nothing more for the rest of their journey.

By the end of the landing party's walk, the Sith led them all to the building that belonged to some of Nam Chorios's Oldtimers. But before Mister Tattoo could enter, a man of about thirty or forty, who somehow had grey hair, exited and glared at the Sith and the rest of the landing party with an inviting grin.

"Welcome, friends, welcome!" the man said. "I am Listener-Master Taru Durn! If you will all please follow me inside!"

Everyone in the landing party, including the Sith, looked curious. But still, they complied with Master Durn and followed him inside the building and down a set of stone steps. They ended up in a chamber that was dominated by a geode that was two and a half meters in diameter. The geode's interior was lined by multicolored crystals, with blue, green, white, and violet being the predominant colors.

During the descent, Jacen had a feeling that the Force was rotting around him, and that sense prevailed even here. He wondered if the others in the landing party felt the same way.

Durn sat himself, rather enthusiastically, on a cot beside the geode while facing the landing party, who had just left the steps to be within the chamber proper.

"Master Durn," Cilghal was the one to speak. "We have a very special patient here who was placed into a coma by someone you may have known." She then looked to the Sith. "What was his name?"

"Garis Boric," Mister Tattoo answered reluctantly.

"Ah, yes, Garis, I remember him!" Durn said with a fond tone. But what he said next contradicted that tone even as he continued speaking with it. "Oh, he was a bastard! Very bright, but very impatient! How I feared that he would use his talents for evil!"

"You don't sound that regretful," Jacen spoke up.

"Oh, I'm just too happy to be angry at Garis right now!" Durn exclaimed. "Because you have brought me an opportunity to undo what he did wrong! Please, give Master Skywalker over to me!"

"How did you know it was Master Skywalker?" Cilghal asked.

"Well, I can sense his Force-presence in that sled of yours!" Durn said, his tone still overly cheerful. "Now, please, remove him from it so that I may revive him from his coma!"

"Cilghal, wait," Jacen said. "How did you know we'd even be coming here?" he asked Durn.

This time, Durn frowned. "I sensed you just as I did Master Skywalker. Wasn't that obvious?"

"I suppose it could be," Jacen said warily. "But don't you wanna know from Master Cilghal about Master Skywalker's condition?"

"What more do I need to know?" Durn asked, a note of impatience rising in his tone.

By now, Jacen was feeling something dreadful stirring in the Force.

"Maybe there need to be more preparations for my uncle to undergo before you can do what you can for him," Jacen suggested. "He might not be in the proper condition to-"

"I can sense that he's in the proper condition, Jacen," Durn said. "Now give him to me."

"You know, I find it interesting that you're not questioning if I'm the real Jacen Solo or-"

"That doesn't matter," Durn growled. "Give me your uncle so I can help him."

"You know, somehow," Jacen said. He then paused for a moment before concluding with, "I don't think you really wanna help my uncle."

"Oh, yeah? Why's that?" Durn asked, his impatience rising.

The dreadful feeling in the Force was rising some more.

"Because I don't think you're really Taru Durn," Jacen finally said.

Durn's face turned into a grimace of rage. It then warped like silly-putty and turned into this horrible, fanged monster that emitted a demonic roar.

As the Jedi and one Sith stood there in horror at their enemy, Abeloth claimed, "Give me my King of the Stars!"

She then launched herself for the landing party.

. . .

"Thanks for the disinfectant," Han said to the light-skinned human male. "Now get outta here."

The man said nothing or even acknowledged Han with so much as a nod before turning and walking away. Han made sure that the Sith puppet was gone first before he turned and headed up the _Millennium Falcon_'s boarding ramp.

"Well, Mister Tattoo came through for us," Han said to Leia once he returned to the cockpit and seated himself in the pilot seat. "We got our Death Seed disinfectant. Even checked it myself to make sure there wasn't any funny business goin' on."

"Good," Leia said evenly. "If there's one thing we can count on with Sith, it's that they'll do anything to survive; even if it means they actually have to do a few good things along the way."

"Yeah, if only they could do that more often," Han replied. "Then we wouldn't-"

"Han," Leia interrupted. "Look!"

His gaze was directed out the forward viewport where clouds could be seen quickly swirling within Nam Chorios's atmosphere.

"Force-storms," Leia said with horror.

"That Sith must have-"

Again, Han was interrupted, but not by Leia this time. This time, an alarm was going off throughout the _Falcon_.

Han looked at his sensors; they told him that the Galactic Alliance Star Destroyer _Predator_ had dropped out of hyperspace into the Chorios system.

Han grunted. "Of all the times we have to make a fast getaway!" He hurriedly cold-started his YT-1300.

In no time at all, before the _Predator_ could get within firing range of Koval Station, the _Millennium Falcon_ was up and running again, and Han rocketed his ship down toward Nam Chorios. He managed to successfully evade the fire of the nearest Golan platform before the _Falcon_ entered the atmosphere.

But once he was in the atmosphere, he wished he'd rather tangle with the _Predator_ and the Golan, for now he could barely keep his ship on a steady path down to the lifesigns that indicated the landing party's current location.

What the hell was going on down there that could cause these Force-storms? Han wondered.

. . .

Because of the threat posed by the creature before them, all of the Jedi and the one Sith with them had all but forgotten about the warning that Leia had given them about what their Force-powers could do to Nam Chorios. As a result, in their battle with Abeloth, they were performing Force-assisted maneuvers and feats that took up a great deal of each of their own powers.

Each of them was too preoccupied with just trying to survive to even sense through the Force the damage that they were inadvertently causing to the planet.

Abeloth, meanwhile, knew very well her contributions to the Force-storms that were now brewing up on Nam Chorios's surface. And she reveled in the death and destruction that it was causing even as she lashed her tentacles out at her enemies.

None of their lightsabers were able to even dent her tentacles; it was as if they were bashing wooden clubs against a heavily fortified steel door. The worst that they could do to her with their lightsaber strikes was bat the tentacles away, but even then, Abeloth felt no pain; only glee in the fact that none of these insignificant wretches would be able to stop her. Not even any of their Force-attacks, whether it came from the Jedi with their pathetic Force-pushes or the one Sith's blue lightning, did much to her; Abeloth was able to absorb the lightning while the Force-pushes only ever made her stumble back a step, which only happened thrice.

However, while it did amuse her to watch all of them leap around the mnemotheraphy chamber, it was also now getting frustrating, because these Force-sensitives were awfully agile in their evasive maneuvers. Abeloth was having a hard time trying to catch any of them, and only twice in this battle, so far, was she able to get any of them wrapped up in either of her tentacles.

The first time she had a tentacle around one of them was with the youngest of them, a redheaded human male whom Abeloth remembered to be Ben Skywalker (she recalled him from some holocasts that Taru Durn had watched not too long ago). She was about to shove the tip of that tentacle down Ben's throat when Jacen Solo rolled in beneath the appendage and placed a powerful Force-shove behind his lightsaber swing. The impact alone prompted Abeloth to let go of Ben, even though she still felt no pain.

But her frustration not only remained; it grew.

The second time that she had one of her tentacles on an opponent was with the one whom Abeloth recognized (again, from a holocast that Durn had seen) as Jedi Master Kyp Durron. From what Abeloth knew about him, the fact that he had once wielded a virtually indestructible vessel that destroyed at least one star intrigued her; and his power in the Force was rather formidable.

However, before Abeloth could get a taste of that power by plunging that tentacle down Durron's throat, it was the mysterious tattooed Sith Lord who leaped over the Jedi Master's captive form and kicked Abeloth back with both booted feet.

The impact actually managed to send Abeloth stumbling back two steps.

She was really getting angry now.

The intensity of her tentacle lashes only increased; now she was able to send the Jedi and their reluctant Sith ally against the walls. But they each managed to recover fast enough to move out of the way before Abeloth's tentacles could wrap themselves around any of them again.

Then Solo, after dodging another of Abeloth's tentacle lashes, leaped forward and decided to plunge his lightsaber down her throat.

It was then that Abeloth's rage reached its crescendo, for now she felt pain.

Solo flew back after Abeloth smacked a tentacle against his chest. But before Solo could hit the wall behind him, Abeloth caught him, wrapped him up, and managed to plunge the tentacle down his throat.

But instead of assimilating him as another unit of her existence, Abeloth felt a much more intense surge of pain than when Solo stuck the lightsaber down her throat. She emitted an ear-piercing shriek before reeling the tentacle out of Solo's mouth. Abeloth then collapsed to her knees as her insides burned; it felt as if she just drank some lava.

And even as her tentacle was reeled back in toward herself, a little sting of pain caressed the appendage; it felt insignificant compared to the agony that she felt inside, but it was still noticeable.

That sting came from when the tentacle had passed by the blade of the lightsaber that Solo had wielded.

Once more, Solo advanced on Abeloth. But even in the throes of the internally burning pain, the entity noticed him and lashed out with a force meant to strike, not to wrap around.

Solo quickly leaned out of the way of the attack, only for the tentacle to reach well past him and strike the Mon Calamari known as Cilghal. She was struck in the chest and flew back to the wall behind her in a way that made her flip around twice; when she hit the wall, her head struck it, cracking her neck. She dropped lifelessly to the floor less than a second later.

Solo seethed as he watched Cilghal die; he turned back, rushed at Abeloth, who had just exhausted herself from the lash that killed the Mon Calamari, and he swung his lightsaber out.

Where all of the previous strikes, except for the one that went down her throat, did nothing to her, this swing promptly decapitated Abeloth.

Once both her head and body struck the chamber floor, they faded out into nothingness.

And only then did the landing party survivors finally notice the death and destruction raging above them.

"I can't teleport all of us out of here," Jacen quickly explained. "We have to get to the surface!"

"You can teleport?" the Sith asked.

"Come on!" Jacen said, ignoring Mister Tattoo as he positioned himself to push the hovercart containing his uncle's form. He then led the way back upstairs.

. . .

In spite of the heavy winds and turbulence that thrashed the _Millennium Falcon_ to and fro, always threatening to overcome her engines and blow her against the side of a building and destroy her, Han managed to guide her down to the coordinates of where the landing party was.

Around them, vehicles and other objects in Nam Chorios's capital city of Hweg Shul blew around here and there, causing untold amounts of property damage.

If these storms got any worse, it could probably start blowing the buildings away; perhaps even cause an apocalypse that could end civilization here on Nam Chorios.

Han's fears were somewhat allayed when he saw almost all the members of the landing party come out from an Oldtimer building just ahead. He frowned when he noticed that Cilghal was absent among them; Jacen was the one who was now pushing the hovercart that contained Luke's comatose body.

And around the 'cart, the rest of the (present) landing party members held onto it so that they wouldn't be blown away. Han was wondering if they were all using the Force to anchor themselves to the ground; if so, he was willing to bet that would make the storms even worse, like trying to escape quicksand by moving around in it.

He hoped that they would make it to the _Falcon_ soon before that became the case.

As the landing party was halfway back to the YT-1300, a group of inhabitants stepped out of their shelters nearby, suddenly morphed into identically grey, fanged monsters, and began rushing at the advancing landing party. The Jedi and their Sith ally thus quickened their pace, and the storms did get incrementally worse.

At one point, Han felt the _Falcon_ buckle; would it fly away not from his piloting, but because of these storms?

Before he could dwell on that any further, a powerful gust of wind suddenly began blowing air out of the _Falcon_. When Han recovered his wits, he looked over to Leia, who had opened up the landing ramp.

"What?!" he asked incredulously.

"The landing party has to get aboard!" Leia pointed out.

_Oh, right_, Han thought. But he was too stunned to even voice that.

Within seconds, the landing party made it aboard; and both the belly turret, which Leia was now operating, and the dorsal cannons were blasting away at the fanged creatures. It didn't kill any of them, although a few of them did writhe on the ground in agony; one of them was even blown away by the intense wind.

"Go, go, go!" Han heard Jacen shout.

A second later, Leia had the boarding ramp closed up and Han had the ship active again. This time, he struggled harder than before to gain control of the _Falcon_ as she made a rocking ascent for Nam Chorios's skies.

Once the turbulence died off when the _Falcon_ was in space again, both the nearest Golan platform and the _Predator_ opened fire on the YT-1300.

Han, of course, engaged evasive maneuvers; but before he could even peripherally wonder how they were going to get out of this one, he noticed that nearly a dozen ChaseMaster frigates dropped out of hyperspace behind the Galactic Alliance Star Destroyer.

The ChaseMasters all opened fire on the _Predator_, which now began turning around to face the eleven enemy capital ships.

As for the Golan and its fellow platforms around Nam Chorios, some of the mysterious frigates began firing upon them as well as the GA Destroyer.

"Who are they?" Leia asked.

"I don't know, but I don't wanna stick around to find out," Han said.

Soon, after the _Falcon_ had found a route away from the ChaseMasters, Han got the ship out of Nam Chorios's gravity well and launched into hyperspace again.

And the sigh that he gave as he sat back in his seat was one of defeat.


	48. Chapter 48

When Danni awakened, she found herself lying on a hovercart in the _Millennium Falcon_'s crowded passenger cabin. She saw several Jedi around her sitting here and there with dour expressions and their heads bowed, including Jacen, Jaina, Kyp Durron, Corran Horn, and Octa Ramis; these last five all looked especially grief-stricken judging by their tear-streaked faces.

The only person who sat meditating, eyes closed and with no sign of crying, was a tattooed man who radiated a dark presence that even Danni could feel. In stark contrast to that man, Tekli sat up against the hovercart actively weeping.

Before Danni could help herself up and out and ask what was going on, Jacen looked up and in her direction. He immediately stood up from where he sat, carefully sidled past the sitting Jedi, and made it to Danni to hug her; he was careful not to upset her back, which was still sore from where she had been stabbed.

By the time Jacen had explained everything that had happened since Danni was rendered comatose because of the Mandalorian siege on the Jedi Temple, she had joined Tekli on the floor in weeping. While Tekli cried mostly for Cilghal, Danni cried for Saba the most; Jacen made sure that he was with Danni in her mourning.

Danni had no idea how much time had passed since she started crying, but when she finally stopped, the tattooed man—the Sith about whom Jacen explained in his recount—had stopped meditating and stood up. Everyone in the passenger cabin looked at him suspiciously even as Han and Leia stepped out to address everyone who was gathered.

The elder Solos each spared the tattooed man a brief look of consternation before they looked back at the small crowd of Jedi.

"We just dropped out into an empty star system," Han explained. "I set the _Falcon_ on autopilot at sublight. That way, if that GA Star Destroyer managed to track us and drops out behind us, we'll have a head-start on 'em and jump back into light-speed before they can tractor us in."

"In the meantime," Leia continued, "I think that, in the wake of the failure over Nam Chorios, we should deliberate as to what we should do next."

"Well, before we can do that," Kyp said as he stood up, "I think we should first find out how the hell Abeloth knew about Nam Chorios and the Theran Listeners." He once again leveled a suspicious gaze at the Sith.

"Because I am Sith, you believed that I had somehow betrayed the Theran Listeners to Abeloth when it goes against my plans?" the tattooed man asked. He scoffed. "How predictable. You Jedi."

At that point, Kyp quickly unhooked his lightsaber from his belt and activated it.

"Kyp, no!" Jacen was the one to shout, even as it seemed to be too late.

But right as Kyp leaped forward toward the Sith Master, Jacen telekinetically shoved the Jedi Master back against the bulkhead behind him and pinned Kyp there.

A moment passed as everyone in the cabin was frozen in place; the Sith Master, for his part, had his hand on the lightsaber hooked to his belt but didn't remove it from its place.

"Jacen!" Kyp yelled. He wasn't even struggling from where he was. "Of all the people in this cabin! He's the one who tortured you for a year! Ruined your life and had your family and the whole galaxy suffer by using a clone of you to wage a pointless war! Why would _you_ be the one to defend him?"

"Because I can look past my own emotions, Kyp," Jacen countered. "Whether or not this man really is key to defeating Abeloth with Uncle Luke's help, I don't know. But he's here to help. We can't be turning against each other, even those who'd be our mortal enemies, when we're faced with one of the greatest threats to the galaxy, if not _the_ greatest threat to the galaxy.

"Yes, Kyp, I mourn Cilghal's loss, too. I mourn all the losses that we've just suffered, whether they were by the direct machinations of this Sith Master or not. But if we have any chance of survival, we can't let our petty rivalries and vendettas cloud our judgement. I would think that a Jedi Master like yourself would know that by now."

Another moment passed, during which the Sith moved his hand away from his lightsaber and returned to his (relatively) unguarded posture.

Jacen didn't release Kyp from his position until the Jedi Master sighed and nodded.

Then the Sith gave a slow clap before saying, "Well put, Jacen. And to think that, when we met again on Coruscant, you were wondering whether or not I should be spared for my actions so that I could aid you against Abeloth.

"Indeed, I will give Vergere this: she has given you a level head."

Jacen gave no acknowledgement to this statement.

"But, alas, Master Durron is correct," the Sith continued. He held up a finger, as if in demonstration. "At least on this matter: we must consider how Abeloth would have known about the Theran Listeners. It is not, however, that difficult to deduce; she is drawn to Force-power, just as she was to the Fallanassi on Pydyr.

"And, so, to enhance her own strength, she will travel to wherever she feels great power and assimilate such wielders of the Force, if not outright kill them merely for aggravating her. The Theran Listeners, like the Fallanassi, were just another set of victims to her quest for godhood."

"So all Force-sects in the galaxy, at least all the known ones, are in danger from being killed or assimilated by Abeloth, if they haven't already suffered such ether fate," Corran summarized. "And I thought you having agents all over the galaxy was a horrifying prospect."

"Yeah, well, now that we got that outta the way," Kyp said, "that still leaves the question of what do we do now? Master Skywalker is still in his coma, we're still no closer to getting him out now that we lost the Theran Listeners, and if what you say is true, Mister Tattoo, if we can't get him out in time, we're all gonna be-"

Before Kyp could finish that sentence, Jacen suddenly fainted.

After all attention in the passenger cabin was focused on him, Tekli checked his pulse and looked up at the crowd.

"Everyone," she said, "we got another coma on our hands."

. . .

The official story that Daala had sent out to the public of the Mandalorian siege on the Jedi Temple being coincidental to the Order now being fugitives from GA law was one that no one was willing to counter.

Considering that it was Daala, no doubt that it was fear who motivated people from speaking out.

But for those who still wanted to do something about what was now obviously a draconian rule, plotting behind closed doors was still an option.

And that was the option that Jagged Fel, Tahiri Veila, and Nawara Ven had as they met in the Head of State's office in the Imperial embassy on Coruscant.

"Daala knows that if she actually admits the obvious and informs the public that she was behind the Mandalorian attack on the Temple," Ven explained, "it will look bad on her. While technically not illegal, the use of Mando mercs would cast a bad public image for her."

"And you think that if that image were to be smeared a little," Jag said, "the public will turn against her?"

"I don't think it's a matter of whether or not the public knows about Daala being the one to use Mandos," Ven went on. "It's whether or not confirmation of that gets out."

"So how do we get that confirmation?" Tahiri asked.

Ven took a moment to himself before speaking. "Well, would you like some extralegal advice?"

"Wait, don't tell us," Tahiri said. "Interrogate one of these mercs and draw a confession out of him?"

"Well, it certainly wouldn't hold up in a court of law even if what Daala did was genuinely illegal," Ven said. "But if word gets out and confirms what the public's already thinking..."

"That Daala really is the underhanded witch that she's always been?" Tahiri asked.

"Then maybe it'll get the Senate to think whether or not she's a trustworthy Chief of State," Jag said.

"I'm on it," Tahiri said before she stood up and walked out the door.


	49. Chapter 49

For a moment that felt like an eternity, Jacen floated in a dark void from which he felt nothing. And for a moment within that moment, he almost panicked; he couldn't help but be reminded of when he was trapped for hours in that dark room when he was enslaved by the Superior Chiss for nearly a decade.

But then the eternal moment ended when a familiar Fosh appeared before him.

"Vergere?" Jacen asked.

She tilted her head at him. "Hello, Jacen. It's been a long time. At least for you anyway. But enough pleasantries. You're probably wondering why you're here and I suppose you expect me to answer any and all questions I might have for you?"

"Would it really be you if you made it that easy for me?" Jacen asked.

Vergere chuckled. "Yes, I was rather enigmatic in life, wasn't I? But, of course, it's very obvious by now that it was necessary for your personal growth. Alas, however, I'm here because, now, I have a much clearer opportunity to speak to you than I had before, so I will do my best to spare you of anything that might be a lie. So: your first question?"

"Why am I here? How did I end up here? What is this place?" Jacen asked.

"Let me answer that last question first," Vergere said. "While even I can't fully inform you of what this place is, I will tell you what I consider it to be: a bridge world between the physical plane of the living and the Netherworld of the Force.

"Now, how did you end up here, and why are you here? Abeloth, of course. Tell me, did she stick one of her tentacles down your throat, Jacen?"

"She did."

"Of course she did. But instead of being assimilated as another unit of her existence, what happened?"

Jacen paused as he thought back to his confrontation with Abeloth. "She reeled in pain. And I was fine."

"She reeled in pain and you were fine, yes," Vergere said, as if guiding a child step-by-step through something difficult for them to comprehend. "Now why do you think that is?"

The next pause was longer than the last. "I don't know," Jacen finally answered.

"Oh, come now, Jacen, think," Vergere said. "What makes you so different from other Jedi, or other beings in the galaxy, for that matter?"

"I thought you weren't going to try any of this on me again," Jacen said.

"I said that I'd spare you of anything that might be a lie," Vergere pointed out. "I never said that I wouldn't let you try and work it out for yourself; I'm only here to help."

"This isn't the time, Vergere," Jacen said, frustrated. "Abeloth is out there and she can-"

"I can't allow you to leave without knowing that you haven't reverted to being a naive Jedi again," Vergere said. "Remember the shadowmoth, Jacen. Remember what I told you about it?"

Jacen was about to protest again, only to stop as he recalled Vergere's story of the shadowmouth that she had "freed" from its cocoon. Even while being tortured in the Yuuzhan Vong's Embrace of Pain, he understood its implications; if Vergere had to evoke that fable again, then he knew that she was now teaching him another lesson that could very well be key to defeating Abeloth.

"Tell me, Jacen," Vergere said, "do you remember when you couldn't feel the Force when you were under the Sith's captivity?"

"Of course I do."

"Then do you also remember when you suddenly felt it again, the last time that the One Sith Master Darth Krayt mind-melded with you?"

"So that's his name," Jacen said.

"Answer my question, Jacen."

"Yes, I remember that, too."

"Then how did you think you regained the Force to escape the One Sith's clutches? Think, Jacen, what, or rather who, do you remember before you escaped?"

"I..." Then he remembered. "You. It was you. You helped me."

Vergere nodded. "Very good. Very good."

"Are you gonna explain how you helped me or is that something you're gonna let me work out for myself?"

"For this, I will be blunt," Vergere admitted. "The One Sith have a Force-nullifying medallion in their possession. They managed to amplify it while at the same time inhibiting its effects on themselves using chips.

"When Darth Krayt mind-melded with you last, part of the memories that he copied from your mind included me. Through Krayt's connection to the Force, I was able to latch onto the bridge that was embodied by your memories of me and I managed to nullify the Force Nullfier's effects on you.

"And at the same time, I was able to warn Krayt about Abeloth by showing her to him."

"So that's why he screamed," Jacen said. "Thanks for that."

"My pleasure," Vergere said.

"But what's this have to do with me being immune to Abeloth's assimilation process?" Jacen asked.

"For this one, I will let you think again."

Jacen sighed. "Well... I guess... whatever you must have done to nullify this Force Nullfier's effects on me... probably had some kind of residual effect on my connection to the Force..."

He trailed off as a realization occurred to him. "That's why I can't sense any of my family through the Force. Whatever you did, Vergere, my family is a void to me."

"It was a necessary sacrifice for your escape, Jacen," Vergere reasoned evenly. "When one meddles with the Force as I have, consequences must be faced. A trade-off, if you will. Your immunity to the One Sith's Force Nullfier came at a price; your connection to your family, to those closest to you, was lost."

Jacen was shocked by what he had heard. It took him a while before he could respond. "You... you had no right to do this," he whispered.

"I had no more right to cut you off from your family ten years ago than I did during the Yuuzhan Vong War," Vergere pointed out evenly. "Yet you don't hold me in contempt for that, now do you?"

Jacen was about to say, "No, I don't," before another realization struck him. "Vergere... everything you taught me... that Sith Lumiya that I heard so much about since returning to the wider galaxy... she'd been responsible for corrupting my clone and for turning him into Darth Caedus. Did... did you know?"

"I had no idea that either Lumiya or the One Sith had plans for you and your clone, Jacen," the Fosh answered. "At least not in life anyway. Everything I did to you, I did to broaden your views of the Force; yes, I had worked with Lumiya and I did know about the One Sith. But Lumiya was nothing more than a puppet to me; I had fooled her into believing that I was a Sith and that everything that I had taught you was, well, a lie. Lumiya was a simplistically-minded Sith who had her uses, nothing more. As for the One Sith, well, the Yuuzhan Vong was a greater priority for the Jedi and your government to handle."

"You could have told us about the One Sith anyway," Jacen said. "You could have told me that if I had encountered Lumiya that I shouldn't listen to her."

"I was actually hoping that if you ever did encounter Lumiya," Vergere said, "you would have been armed with the proper knowledge to counter whatever rhetoric she would have thrown your way. I envisioned her as the ultimate test for you and for all that I had taught you; that was probably the greatest use that I had in mind for her.

"And, again, as for why I didn't just tell you about the One Sith anyway, well... let's just say that you're correct in sparing him from the likes of Kyp Durron."

"You didn't know about Abeloth when you were alive," Jacen pointed out. Then his expression changed. "Did you?"

"No, I admit that I didn't," Vergere stated. "But I did have a premonition from the Force that Krayt would have a destiny to fulfill, one that would be necessary for the galaxy. That's why I thought that he should be spared from discovery, at least for the time being. However, as to whether or not his destiny is to destroy Abeloth, even I don't know; I do know that he will be necessary in defeating her, though."

Jacen nodded. "The future is always in motion. Even a spirit like yourself doesn't have all the answers."

"If I did, it wouldn't be so difficult for me to have simply contacted you at any prior point and just tell you how to defeat Abeloth," Vergere said. "If there even is a definitive way to do so."

"That's encouraging," Jacen said wryly.

"Whether it's encouraging or not," Vergere said, "we should waste no more time. Your immunization to the Force Nullfier's effects is abominable to Abeloth. That's why she couldn't assimilate you. But just as you are immune to her, you will also have a connection to her." As she spoke, she drifted toward Jacen, who remained where he was.

"A connection?" he asked. "Like a mind-meld? But how would that be feasible when you just said that my immunity to this Force Nullifier makes me 'abominable' to her?"

"It only makes you immune to her efforts at assimilating you," Vergere clarified. "That doesn't mean that you can't make any other kind of connection to her."

Vergere then closed the gap between them and lifted a hand to touch a finger to Jacen's forehead.

Jacen seized up; both Vergere and the void disappeared from his perceptions as he was then plunged into a world of swirling red and green. An unseen force—perhaps the Force itself—opened up a gap between all this red and green, and Jacen saw the physical plane through multiple eyes, across different locations throughout the galaxy. Some of them were familiar to him, some weren't.

Among all these different locations, Jacen was able to focus in very closely on one of them.

This perception came from the throne room of the Fountain Palace on Hapes. The sight was directed at the throne, which was currently occupied by Tenel Ka; now the owner of this sight was gradually approaching the Queen Mother, who was currently preoccupied by something on her datapad.

"No!" Jacen screamed.

Then, just as he had been plunged into the dark void, he was brought right back to the passenger cabin of the _Millennium Falcon_; he was laying on the hovercart that Danni had previously occupied, though it was open to him. Jacen's family, Danni, and Tekli had surrounded him while several Jedi, including the three remaining Jedi Masters, served as spectators behind them.

Even the Sith Lord, Darth Krayt, seemed to have a passing interest in his revival.

"We have to get to Hapes!" Jacen said as he hurriedly sat up. "Now!"


	50. Chapter 50

In spite of the Mandalorians' reputations for being formidable opponents to the Jedi, especially since they generally lacked Force-sensitivity, there were still ways to defeat them if just the right tactics were used.

For Tahiri, such a tactic included hiding out in an abandoned building at a level of Coruscant that bordered the Vongformed underworld. And after waiting for about half an hour by a dilapidated windowsill, Tahiri spotted a trio of Mandos flying on jetpacks passing by several dozen meters overhead. It was obvious that they were searching for any Jedi that they could spot below.

From her vantage point, Tahiri saw them flying overhead. And before she could give any of the three mercs time to spot her, she reached out and directed her use of the Force on each jetpack; in seconds, all three 'packs went flying off the Mandos' backs. As the mercs fell screaming to their potential deaths, Tahiri applied just enough pressure to each jetpack so that they exploded harmlessly in the air, clear of any sky traffic.

After the explosions passed, Tahiri concentrated on levitating the rapidly descending Mandos and halting their falls. She caught them and had all of them level with her; she then shoved them forward so that they all flew through a dilapidated windowsill that was part of the building directly across from Tahiri.

Once Tahiri could see that all three Mandos had crashed to the floor of the level that she had thrown them through, she then levitated the last one that she had fly through the window and raised him into the air again. Next, she pulled him out from that windowsill, wherein she had him sail across the gap between buildings, screaming in fear all the way, before he flew through the window that Tahiri now stood next to rather than directly in front of.

The Mando whom Tahiri picked crashed prone to the floor, but he recovered quickly enough to roll onto his back and aim his handblaster at her. Naturally, however, Tahiri Force-swiped the blaster out of his hand. And before he had a chance to use any other weapon in his arsenal, Tahiri Force-shoved him so that he skidded along his armored back to the wall behind him.

Once his back hit the wall, Tahiri pinned him there so that he couldn't move a muscle below his neck.

"Let go of me, you Jedi witch!" the Mando cursed as he struggled vainly against Tahiri's Force-grip. "Let go o' me or I'll-"

"Technically, I'm not a Jedi," Tahiri said as she walked up to the trapped merc. "Or did Chief of State Daala forget that fact when she sent a few of your friends to my apartment to kill me?"

At this, the Mando stayed silent and even seemed to relax in Tahiri's invisible hold.

"Not talking now, huh?" the former Jedi asked. "Why? Think I have some recorder on me or somewhere in this room that's preserving everything that's said for posterity? Too afraid to say something that might damage our beloved Chief of State's glorious reputation?" Tahiri didn't know if she could sound anymore sarcastic if she had deliberately drawled her words out.

When the Mando still said nothing, Tahiri said, "Well, let me say this... for the record. Since I'm no longer a Jedi, that means that I'm no longer under any strict obligations to not do something like this." She then lifted up her free hand and projected the Force from it.

The result was the Mando's right forearm receiving a fracture, eliciting a pained scream from him.

"Now I know you Mandos are tough," Tahiri said, "but we all have our limits with pain. Mine were tested; have yours been?"

She then broke his left forearm with the Force, prompting another agonized yelp from him.

"This won't do you any good, Jedi!" the Mando yelled. "Even if you get me to talk, what then? No one will take any of this seriously! Not only would it be dismissed in a court of law-"

"Oh, legal expert, are you?" Tahiri asked. "Oh, you maybe right on that; once again, wrong on calling me a Jedi since I'm not that anymore, as I just said, but right about this whole encounter not holding up in a court of law. And, hell, I can even see the general public thinking that this act makes me look worse than you. But here's the thing."

She then dislocated his right leg by the knee; he screamed once more.

"You may tell me anything you want to stop the pain from coming," Tahiri said. "But as you can plainly see, I have the Force as my ally, and a powerful ally it is. And with that in mind, it helps me to detect whether or not you're lying to me; so if I sense any lies coming from you, I break your other leg. So talk: did the Chief of State of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, Natasi Daala, assign a legion of Mandalorian mercenaries to lay siege to the Jedi Temple of Coruscant?"

"You... you can't do this!" the Mando shouted. "You're a Jedi and-"

He gave a little squeak of pain as his big left toe was broken.

"For the third time," Tahiri said impatiently, "I'm not a Jedi. In fact, I was at one point a Sith, apprenticed to Darth Caedus himself. So you might as well call me a Sith considering what I'm doing right now."

She then broke another toe on his left foot; yet another cry of pain emerged.

"What's this gonna accomplish anyway?" the Mando asked between sobs. "Even if you do get me to say that Daala hired us, which she didn't, it's not like she really did anything illegal anyway!"

"Perhaps not," Tahiri said. "But I still wanna hear it. So spill it or I break another toe, Mando."

She let a moment pass this time before she asked, "Well?"

The Mando let out a frustrated grunt. "All right, all right, Daala hired us, okay? She suspected that the Jedi, namely Luke Skywalker or Jacen Solo, used a Fallanassi illusion to hide something from the GA government!"

"And that was grounds to use the Mandos to besiege the Jedi Temple?" Tahiri asked.

"She thought so!"

"I see," Tahiri said with a thoughtful tone. "Well, then, thank you for your cooperation." She then turned around to leave, but didn't break her Force-hold on the Mando.

"Oh, by the way," she said after taking a few steps and turning back. "Did you think I was lying when I told you I wasn't a Jedi?"

"What?"

She repeated her question. Then she gave him a moment to respond.

"Well... I mean... maybe," he said. "I don't care, though! Just let me go! My gods, I think I need medical attention!"

"I'll leave you to that then," Tahiri said. She turned around again and actually dropped the Force-hold that she had on him as she started walking.

. . .

Seated on her throne, going through more reports on her datapad, Tenel Ka was brought out of her boredom when she saw that one of her handmaidens was making her way up the steps to the throne.

"Veras?" Tenel Ka addressed the handmaiden as she put the 'pad on her armrest. "Why do you seek to be on the same level as me?" While she considered herself a lenient Queen Mother, Tenel Ka knew that she still had to maintain and uphold royal decorum, especially in her throne room.

"My apologies, my queen," Veras the handmaiden said as she, who was now level with the throne, bowed before the Queen Mother. Tenel Ka noted how deliberately mocking the gesture seemed. "But I must say: I do not believe that you deserve to sit in that throne."

"Oh, really?" Tenel Ka asked in a conversational manner even as she carefully reached for the lightsaber that hung to her belt. "Then whom do you think should sit here?"

"Why," Veras said, as if starting to say something.

Then, right before Tenel Ka's eyes, the handmaiden morphed into a hideous grey monster with needle-sharp fangs and long, slithery tentacles.

"I should," the monster concluded.

With a horrified expression, Tenel Ka swiftly pulled her lightsaber from her belt and activated it; at the same time, she leaped up into the air so that she landed in the middle of the throne room.

The monster turned around and leaped after the Queen Mother. Tenel Ka flipped backwards so that she wouldn't be crushed by her opponent when the latter landed, then she brought her lightsaber up to bat away at the nigh-impenetrable tentacles that the monster used to lash out.

But even in spite of her efforts to stand her ground, Tenel Ka found herself being forced more and more to the exit of the throne room behind her.

The monster laughed as she advanced upon the retreating Queen Mother.

"You see?!" the creature declared gleefully. "An insignificant being such as yourself deserves not the power provided by a throne! Only a goddess deserves it! Only I deserve it! Now stand still and open wide!"

By this point, Tenel Ka's back hit the closed throne room doors behind her. But she once again leaped high into the air, where she flipped once so that her booted feet touched the ceiling. She then rocketed down to the opposite side of the room, where she landed in a crouch by the steps leading up to the throne itself.

Two seconds later, however, the monster had turned and leaped across the room to swipe at the Queen Mother. Tenel Ka then flipped up and backward again to avoid both of the monster's swiping tentacles. The Queen Mother landed in another crouch, this time on the head of her throne, and decided to stand her ground there as the owner of the tentacles continued to swipe at her furiously.

Of course, within seconds, Tenel Ka, despite her best efforts at keeping the tentacles at bay, was knocked from her perch and landed right where her feet would be had she still been sitting on the throne. And before she could recover, a tentacle wrapped itself around both of her ankles so that she couldn't separate them and she was then tossed to her back.

Still, in spite of the bone-jarring impact, Tenel Ka maintained her one-handed grip on her lightsaber. As such, even as the other tentacle came rushing in toward her face, the Queen Mother turned away from it and promptly leaned her lightsaber blade onto the tentacle that kept her legs bound together; and as she did, she put the Force behind her push.

Then, just as the tentacle that had rushed in for her face wrapped itself around her throat, Tenel Ka's blade finally started to sink into the flesh of the tentacle that held onto her legs.

Upon the sizzling of this flesh, the creature reeled in pain, screaming as if a multitude of voices emanated from her maw, and Tenel Ka was able to push herself to her feet again. She then leaped down to the bottom of the steps where the monster vainly tried to nurse the pain that Tenel Ka inflicted upon her.

However, even as Tenel Ka put the Force behind her lightsaber blows, they didn't leave anymore scars or even tiny scratches upon her monstrous opponent; but they were forcing her back across the throne room.

Once Tenel Ka and the monster were in the center of the throne room, the latter finally pivoted out of the way and then smacked the Queen Mother with the tentacle that the former Jedi's lightsaber didn't wound. Tenel Ka flew across the room and landed only a few meters from hitting the wall behind her.

The monster emitted an enraged roar as she charged across the throne room to the downed Queen Mother. The latter, for her part, decided to throw her lightsaber like a spear to her rapidly advancing foe; the monster dodged from the attack and kept on going.

Tenel Ka then rolled to her feet and ran toward the throne room's exit even as she called the lightsaber back to her hand. Once it smacked her palm and entered her grip, she swiftly turned out and drove the tip of her blade against the creature's chest. The worst it did to the monster, however, was drive her back a couple of steps; but Tenel Ka reacted quickly enough to duck beneath her opponent's next tentacle swing and then ran the blade across the scar that she had placed there.

Again, the creature reeled away in pain, screaming as she stepped back. But Tenel Ka offered her no mercy; this time, she directed her blade's tip to the monster's left eye.

And this time, the blade sank into it; an even louder howl of pain emerged from that fanged maw, and the wave of Force-power that Tenel Ka's opponent emitted blew the Queen Mother back across the throne room again.

But when she looked up from where she landed on her back, Tenel Ka saw the monster, with a smoking hole where an eye should have been, collapse to her knees. Then the monster's remaining eye was directed at Tenel Ka.

The creature laughed. "You may have killed this avatar. But your daughter will not be able to kill the one that I have sent after her." She then collapsed prone to the floor and vanished into thin air.

But instead of a feeling of victory coming over her, Tenel Ka's eyes widened in shock.

_My daughter?!_ she thought in horror.

Tenel Ka then felt her daughter's presence; she was already out of the Fountain Palace, her essence indicating that she was fearful for her life.

"Allana!" Tenel Ka screamed. She then rushed out of the throne room.

. . .

Allana ran for her life, screaming and crying in the streets of the capital of Hapes as the grey, fanged monster who introduced herself as Abeloth chased after her.

And even as Abeloth chased after her, she always stopped for about a few seconds or so to stick a tentacle down the throat of some hapless citizen in the streets. When that was done, a new avatar had joined in the chase for the princess of Hapes and would repeat that process for anyone who didn't immediately run away; as a result, the number of Abeloths grew exponentially.

At one point in the chase, one of the Abeloths stuck a tentacle down a street clown's throat. In seconds, she became yet another avatar, and as she joined the chase, she called out, "Oh, Allana! Don't you want a balloon?!" She held both a red and yellow balloon as she added to the growing crowd of monsters chasing the little girl.

Allana put all of her strength in the Force into running away from Abeloth; and yet the hive-minded collection of monsters kept pace with her.

Soon, the little girl reached a police boundary; Allana hid behind one of the officers who promptly shielded her from the sight of all the other cops firing upon the advancing legion.

But none of the laser bolts penetrated the Abeloths' thick hide; and soon, they reached the boundary and began sticking tentacles down the officers' throats. Allana didn't even hesitate to continue running.

However, it wasn't long before a Hapan shuttle descended from the air to land in front of Allana. The side door that was facing the girl opened, and Allana, upon seeing her mother sitting in one of the seats, didn't hesitate to rush inside.

"Go!" Tenel Ka shouted to the pilot.

The shuttle then ascended even before the palace guard closest to the door shut it. But just as it closed, the ship bucked violently.

"What is going on?!" Tenel Ka called out to the pilot.

"Those things, Your Majesty!" the pilot called back. "Their tentacles, they're... grabbing at us!"

The pilot then engaged the shuttle's auto-defense systems, and the ship's rotating laser turrets began firing down upon the crowd of Abeloths.

Yet they seemed to be doing no damage, and the shuttle's engines strained as the tentacles pulled it closer and closer to the ground.

Tenel Ka then looked to Allana, who was sitting on her lap. Both mother and daughter shared a brief, silent moment, wherein Tenel Ka shed a single tear while Allana looked back at her in wordless fear and confusion.

The Queen Mother then stood up, careful to make sure that her daughter stood up as well, and then turned to the shuttle door.

"Open it," Tenel Ka demanded from the guard sitting nearest to it.

The guard obeyed without hesitation, and Tenel Ka stepped to the ledge where she unhooked her lightsaber from her belt and activated it.

"Mommy, don't jump!" Allana yelled.

But Tenel Ka didn't jump. Instead, she crouched down and, using the Force to assist behind her push, shoved the blade upon the nearest tentacle that was sticking itself to the shuttle. Once the flesh there startled to sizzle, a few of the tentacles reeled back as several of the Abeloths below screamed in pain. Then Tenel Ka repeated the process for a few more tentacles, and more of them fell away from the shuttle until there was only one tentacle left.

But just as Tenel Ka was about to press her blade there, it suddenly peeled itself away from the shuttle's hull and grabbed at Tenel Ka's ankle.

The Queen Mother fell toward the crowd of Abeloths below.

"No!" Allana screamed as she tried to jump out of the shuttle to get to her mother. But the guards nearest her kept her from doing so.

Still, even from this angle, Allana saw her mother land amidst the Abeloths. She then started leaping among them while swiping away with her lightsaber at the hive-minded monsters, albeit to little to no avail.

"Get us close to the Queen Mother!" one of the guards holding Allana back yelled to the pilot.

The shuttle descended as close as it could to the jumping Queen Mother and the crowd of monsters. At this distance, the ship's rotating turret fire was able to blow some of the monsters several meters away, but the laser bolts still didn't seem to do a thing to them otherwise.

And Tenel Ka still fought for her life; and it was only then that she started to make her way back to the shuttle.

Then she leaped up and forward to the open shuttle door, where Allana reached with both hands out to her (even though she was still well within the shuttle thanks to the guards).

But right as Tenel Ka was a meter from the shuttle, a tentacle swiped at her, grabbing her around the torso and quickly pulling her away to one of the Abeloths.

And before Allana knew it, she saw a tentacle plunged down her mother's throat.

Silence fell upon the little girl's world; she was only vaguely aware of the following events.

Since none of the shuttle's rotating turrets dared aim anywhere near the Queen Mother, the guards decided to open fire upon the monster that had a tentacle down Her Majesty's throat, even in spite of the risk to Tenel Ka herself.

But it was to no avail. And within seconds, the tentacle was pulled out from Tenel Ka's insides and she had transformed into another avatar for Abeloth.

Allana couldn't even recognize her mother when she looked into the well-like eyes of the creature that had replaced her; she couldn't even feel her presence anymore, for that matter.

At some point, the guard who was issuing orders must have had the shuttle door closed. The ship then quickly ascended to return to the Fountain Palace, if only to get the princess away from danger.

But Princess Allana of Hapes—who might very well have to accept the role of Queen Mother at such a young age—still had to accept the fact that her mother was now gone.


	51. Chapter 51

Before the _Millennium Falcon_ dropped out of hyperspace in the Hapes system, Jacen's eyes flashed open in shock at what he had just seen and felt from his recent meditation.

Tenel Ka was gone.

In the crowded passenger cabin, Jacen saw several faces who shared his look of shock and grief, as each of them were survivors from the tragic Mission to Myrkr during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Along with Jaina and Tekli, there was also Lowbacca, Tesar Sebatyne, and even Raynar Thul, who had yet to undergo reconstructive surgery for burns that he had received before he became UnuThul, leader of the Killik Colony.

Because of the mind-meld that had kept them all together during that torturous mission, all of the Myrkr survivors had formed a strong bond with each other that seemed to transcend Jacen's own loss of Force-feeling to his own family. As a result, the Myrkr survivors, being among the closest people to Tenel Ka, felt her loss.

"We're too late," Jacen whispered.

And that was when the _Falcon_ dropped out of hyperspace. Jacen then hurried to the cockpit, where his father was now being hailed by an authoritative Hapan voice.

"Identify yourself," the feminine voice demanded harshly.

"This is Captain Han Solo of the _Millennium Falcon_," Jacen's father answered. "I would've thought that my ship would be legendary even in the Hapes Consor-"

"Captain Solo," the voice interrupted, "I'm afraid I can't trust that it might be you. If you are who you say you are, you'll turn around and go back where you came from."

"What's all this about?" Han asked with concern.

"Tenel Ka's dead," Jacen answered before the voice could.

Both Han and Leia looked at their son in shock.

"Indeed, your son, if that's even him, Captain Solo," the authoritative voice said, "is correct. The Queen Mother is dead, long live the Queen Mother."

"Long live-" Han cut himself off. "What are you say-"

"Her Majesty Allana Djo is being evacuated from Hapes," the voice explained. "Again, turn back now or you will be considered a threat to her life and we will fire upon you."

"What makes you think we're threats?" Leia was the one to ask.

"Abeloth," Jacen answered. "She killed Tenel Ka by turning her into another avatar; for all the Hapans know, we could be more of her."

"Well, how do we know that whoever's talking to us right now isn't-" Han tried to ask.

"I checked," Jacen answered. "My new connection with Abeloth allows me to see her perceptions through her avatars; I didn't see any of them aboard a Hapan Battle Dragon. Not yet, anyway."

"_Millennium Falcon_, this is your last warning or we will-"

"Admiral Serash, stand down," Allana's voice interjected over the comm frequency. "I am currently in Hapes's orbit and intend to dock with the _Millennium Falcon_." Indeed, there was a Hapan shuttle ascending away from the planet.

"With all due respect, Your Majesty, I don't think that would be-"

"I don't care what you think," Allana said with an impatient tone. "I can sense that the people aboard the _Falcon_ aren't more of that monster down there. Now leave that ship alone and allow your Queen Mother to board her."

There was hesitation in the admiral's response. "As you wish, Your Majesty."

A few minutes later, Allana boarded the _Falcon_ with a contingent of six palace guards, where she was met by her grandparents and Jaina in the crowded passenger cabin. The newly-crowned Queen Mother ordered her guards, who had demanded that the Jedi around them stay away from Her Majesty, to step out of the way so that the three Solos could see her.

"Captain Solo," Allana declared with an official-sounding tone in her voice, "I wish you to take me to your personal quarters on this ship. You may bring your wife and daughter with you."

Jacen, who had stayed out of sight from the Hapans by blending in with the small crowd of Jedi and keeping his face hidden, was surprised at how mature the little girl sounded. How did she manage to take on such an adult tone in the way she spoke and in her posture, especially so soon after her mother's death?

At the same time, a voice at the back of his head was saying to him, _This is your daughter! You should be here to comfort her like Mom, Dad, and Jaina!_

_She's not my daughter_, the dominant part of Jacen's mind said. _She's my clone's daughter_.

_What, and that means she's nothing to you?_ that smaller part of his conscience asked.

Jacen found himself wanting in an answer to that. He eventually replied to that smaller side with, _She won't accept me anyway. I look like Caedus, therefore, to her, regardless of what any adult might tell her, I am Caedus._

_But you both lost Tenel Ka! This could be the opportunity that you can_-

_I'm_ not _her father_, the dominant part of Jacen's mind replied.

_But you could be; especially when she needs one the most_.

However, Jacen didn't let that smaller part of his conscience win out. Instead, he stayed with the Jedi crowd—something that he had tried not to do, on a metaphorical level, years ago after the Vong War—and let his parents, sister, and clone's daughter go to Han's quarters. Meanwhile, Allana's guards remained alert outside the cabin.

Even in spite of the privacy that Allana had hoped for, her sobs could still be heard echoing throughout the _Millennium Falcon_'s bulkheads; the guards, the Jedi, and Darth Krayt could hear it all.

. . .

When Jag entered Tahiri's quarters in Coruscant's Imperial embassy, the first thing he said to her was, "What the hell did you think you were doing?"

Tahiri was seated on the couch, which faced away from Jag, and was looking forward in a haunted manner. When she turned her head to regard Jag after he spoke, her expression didn't change.

Jag's own demeanor did, however. "What's wrong?"

"Tenel Ka's dead," Tahiri answered in a low tone. "I felt it. She's become part of the entity that tried to invade Coruscant while the Temple was besieged by the Mandalorians."

"This Abeloth that Jacen mentioned?" Jag asked.

"Yes."

Jag was left speechless for a moment. He knew that Jaina was friends with Tenel Ka, and that if she felt her death through the Force like Tahiri did, then no doubt she was crying her eyes out wherever she was and Jag wasn't there to comfort her. And that was to say nothing about the others who knew and loved her, like Han, Leia, and certainly Tenel Ka's own daughter, Allana.

And while Jag himself had barely known Tenel Ka in the few times they had met in the past, he felt at least a pang of grief for the Hapan Queen Mother's passing.

He didn't even think of the political repercussions that would come from that passing.

"I'll leave you alone then," Jag said. He turned to leave.

"Wait," Tahiri said. "Did you stop by to talk about my recorded interrogation of the Mandalorian?"

"It can wait," Jag said.

"My grief can wait," Tahiri said emphatically as she stood up and fully faced Jag. "You got something to say to me?" She spoke as if trying to provoke a violent confrontation.

"Tahiri, I didn't come here to start a fight." He held a hand out in an attempt to try to defuse the situation.

Tahiri sneered. "No, of course you didn't. Because you probably know I could kill you with my Force-powers and maybe not even give a damn because of my mourning for Tenel Ka. And you don't even have an ysalamir to level the playing field." She was now advancing on Jag.

"Tahiri, just calm down."

"What's a matter, Jag? Expect to grill me about the way I handled that Mando? That I was a little too hard on him and we definitely won't be able to convince anyone that what he said was true?" She stopped less than a meter away from Jag. "Well, if that's what you came here to say, then say it." Her tone was definitely challenging.

With hesitation, Jag resumed the posture that he first had when he entered Tahiri's quarters. "Fine. I'll cut right to the matter. Yes, what you did was unacceptable, even if it does confirm what pretty much anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together could've figured out. Now no one's gonna support the Jedi against Daala!"

"How brave of you to say that," Tahiri said. "So what're you gonna do about it? Cast me out so that one of those Mandos out there can hunt me down and kill me?"

"No, as a matter of fact, I'd hope you to remain here and not go outside this embassy until after we've found a way to resolve this crisis between Daala and the Jedi," Jag said.

"So you want me to just sit on my ass and not do anything but cry over Tenel Ka?"

"You remaining in this building, regardless of whether or not you cry over Tenel Ka like that's a bad thing, is probably the best thing you can do right now," Jag said. "Tahiri, after what I saw from that footage of what you did to that Mando, I could see that you were emotionally compromised. Now that you lost someone you were close to, Tenel Ka, I doubly don't trust you to make the right decisions. I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave."

"I could just break outta here," Tahiri pointed out evenly. "No one in this building could stop me, not even you."

"I believe that," Jag replied just as evenly. "So I'm counting on you to just stay here and reflect not only on what Tenel Ka's loss means to you, but how your actions might lead you down the path of the dark side of the Force."

"You know nothing of the dark side of the Force, Jag," Tahiri said aggressively.

"I may not know as much as you or Jaina," Jag agreed, "but I can tell when a Jedi—sorry, Force-sensitive—is walking that path. Jaina went through it on Hapes during the Vong War, I certainly know you went through it being apprenticed to Caedus-"

"Don't you ever just casually drop his name like that again," Tahiri growled.

"And why shouldn't I?" Jag retorted. "Tahiri, I'm obviously not a Jedi, and I can't help you directly with this, but you're gonna have to-"

Tahiri cut him off by grabbing him by the throat and lifting him up in the air with Force-assisted strength.

"Tahiri!" Jag exclaimed, his words raspy from being choked. "Stop! Stop!"

It was then that the darkened expression on Tahiri's face was suddenly replaced by a look of shock. She dropped Jag to his feet and rapidly backed away from him, looking at her hands in horror.

"Jag, I... I'm sorry," she said, looking back at him.

He regarded her with a mixture of worry and anger as he massaged his throat.

"You still have much of Caedus's indoctrination in you, Tahiri," Jag said. "But there's still good in you; I can see that. The best thing that you can do for the Jedi right now, and definitely for yourself, is to remain here for the time being until we're both certain that you can reliably help the Order."

He turned and left. Tahiri then collapsed to the couch and started sobbing.


	52. Chapter 52

Allana could be heard sobbing for several minutes throughout the _Millennium Falcon_'s bulkheads, and soon, the sobs of Han, Leia, and Jaina could also be heard.

For Jacen's part, as he refused to be anywhere near Allana, he relegated himself to the _Falcon_'s cockpit. Not caring about whether or not his father minded that he sat in the pilot seat, Jacen had placed himself there and watched as the Battle Dragons over Hapes blew away ascending ships from the planet.

Jacen didn't bother checking to see through his connection to Abeloth if any of those ships had her avatars aboard. If there were, even he, a Jedi, wasn't going to risk everyone aboard the _Falcon_ to protect some desperate people simply trying to escape her.

It was cold of the Hapans to do this, he knew, and Jacen couldn't help but feel bad about just sitting here and not doing anything for the time being. He knew that until Allana, Han, Leia, and Jaina all got their immediate grief for Tenel Ka out of their systems, there was nothing tangible that could be done.

Of course, Jacen found himself unable to cry for Tenel Ka. At this point, he was starting to feel numb. A part of him was scared about that; ever since he was captured by the One Sith over a decade ago, his life had become a living hell. He was starting to wonder if he would ever live to see the day when he could again feel any sense of real joy, like when he was a child and a teenager; before the One Sith entered his life, or even before the Yuuzhan Vong had entered his life.

Yes, he had reprieves in his life, Danni being foremost among them, and he was glad to have her in his life. But now, with all that had happened since the Vong War—his torture by the One Sith, his enslavement to the Superior Chiss, his realization of Darth Caedus and all he had done, the Mandalorian siege on the Jedi Temple, and now Abeloth's rising—it seemed like there was more tragedy than he or anyone around him could bear.

Jacen's self-pitying musings were cut off when Darth Krayt entered the cockpit and sat himself down in the copilot seat.

"No one told you you could sit there," Jacen said in a tone that didn't offer much of a fight.

"We are wasting precious time," Krayt said without preamble. "We cannot sit here and wait for your family to stop crying over the Hapan Queen Mother. Abeloth has other avatars across the galaxy, and she is still spreading herself; the avatars that die here mean nothing."

"You wanna bring that up to the captain, be my guest," Jacen said in a distant tone. "Just don't forget you got Jedi around you that'll prevent you from smacking any sense into my dad or anyone else here."

"Aboard this ship, I could not forget that even if I tried," Krayt replied contemptuously.

"So what are you complaining to me for?" Jacen asked.

"You and I both know that your uncle must be brought out of his coma and soon, even if we do not have Garis Boric or any other Theran Listener with us anymore," Krayt pointed out.

"And you don't have anymore ideas? Hopin' I might have some? Hopin' I might be able to get Uncle Luke out of his coma? I didn't study under the Theran Listeners, my clone did. So you're outta luck there."

"Your clone would have been insufficient given what he learned from the Theran Listeners," Krayt said. "However, I-"

"Everyone!" Kyp Durron's voice called from the passenger cabin. Even Jacen and Krayt turned in their seats to regard him as he was holding his datapad in his hands. "Look at this! It's a live feed."

From Jacen and Krayt's seats, they could only hear Abeloth's voice as she made her announcement. But as she went on, they slowly rose from their seats, left the cockpit, and went to join the Jedi crowd in trying to see what most of everyone in the passenger cabin could only hear.

"Greetings to all of my Hapan subjects! I am your Queen Mother, Tenel Ka Djo, and I make this announcement not only to you, but to the rest of the galaxy! Pay no mind to this pretender who claims to be my daughter; Allana Djo died years ago at the end of the Second Galactic Civil War. I know not who this imposter is, but I can assure you, when my forces find her, she will be dealt with swiftly and efficiently to the highest extent of Hapan law.

"Unfortunately, this pretender's influence is so great that she has convinced my own forces that I am some sort of monster! I can assure you, nothing can be farther from the truth! If anything, this imposter is a monster for claiming that she has any right to the throne by posing as my daughter!" At this last sentence, "Tenel Ka's" voice started to crack, as if she were on the verge of crying. "Oh, how I do miss my dear Allana! She was the light of my life, the only redeeming quality to my amorous affair with that tyrant Jacen Solo!

"My forces, listen not to this imposter! Return to me, under my command, this instance, or you will all understand the truest form of punishment that I can render to those who oppose me! All those who fail to follow my decrees shall have their flesh flayed from their bones while..." As she continued to speak, her voice began to take on an echoing effect, as if she were starting to speak with more than one voice. "...your minds are plunged into terrors from which your puny comprehensions cannot recover! I will not be trapped on this insignificant world, for I am legion, I live across the stars! I will come for you, and in time, no mortal weapon shall kill me! Do as I say or I shall..."

As Abeloth trailed on in her tirade, Allana's voice spoke up.

"Master Durron, turn that off."

All eyes in the cabin shifted to her; Jacen didn't even know that she and the rest of his family had joined the Jedi crowd while he paid attention to Abeloth's announcement as Tenel Ka.

Kyp obeyed without protest. Then Allana, whose only evidence that she had been crying came from her wet and reddened cheeks, walked to the _Falcon_'s cockpit and opened a channel.

"Admiral Serash... I want your forces to destroy the Fountain Palace."

"Your Majesty? May you please repeat that? Did you say that you wish to destroy the Fountain Palace?"

"Admiral Serash, I want your forces to destroy the Fountain Palace," Allana said with more conviction. "It has been irrevocably desecrated by an abominable being that seeks to wipe out all life in this galaxy. I can never look upon it without disdain, nor can any successors that I may have look upon it with disgust should they know who sat upon that physical throne."

"I understand, Your Majesty. I will execute those orders immediately."

Less than a minute later, the Battle Dragons concentrated much of their fire upon one specific location on Hapes as they carried out a near-surgical orbital bombardment of the Fountain Palace. A massive fireball on the surface could be seen even from orbit.

It wasn't long after the Battle Dragons stopped firing that Admiral Serash's voice appeared over the comm again.

"Your Majesty... the Fountain Palace... is no more."

"Thank you, Admiral Serash. Maintain your position over this planet so that no one else may escape. Is that understood?"

"It is, Your Majesty."

"As for myself," Allana said, "I must depart with the _Millennium Falcon_. I will take my guards with me, but I can't tell you where I'm going."

"I understand, Your Majesty."

Allana then ended the communication.

As the true Hapan Queen Mother saw to it that the pilot of the shuttle that brought her to the _Falcon_ would leave without her, Krayt stepped before Jacen to address him.

"You and I both know that destroying Abeloth's avatar of Tenel Ka Djo means nothing in the long-run," Krayt reminded Jacen. "However, before we were interrupted by that dreadful announcement, I was about to tell you that we do have another way to bring your uncle out of his coma even without a Theran Listener."

"Why didn't you say anything about this before, after Nam Chorios?" Jacen asked.

"As a matter of fact, I was about to before you fell into your own brief little coma," Krayt said snidely. "And it did not seem as if I had a chance to inform you after you awakened, what with your pathetic concern for the previous Queen Mother."

"You shut up about her," Jacen growled as he lifted a finger near Krayt's face.

The Sith Master merely rolled his eyes in annoyance. "But now that I have your undivided attention, there is a way in which we can contact Garis Boric from the afterlife. It will be much more difficult than if we had a living Theran Listener among us, and it may be possible that we can both die from what we may attempt to do."

"A Force-technique that I'm not aware of?" Jacen asked as he calmed down. He resumed a slightly more polite posture with Krayt now; at least he wasn't pointing a finger in the Sith's face anymore.

"But one that your clone might have been," Krayt said.

"Get to the point," Jacen intoned.

"There was a station in the Maw that I had personally attended," Krayt explained. "It has been destroyed; trust me, as hard as that may be for you, I had checked for it myself, and I believe that it may have somehow been connected to Abeloth. Anyway, on this station, there was a collection of Force-sensitives who referred to themselves as the Mind Walkers. They forced themselves into a form of meditation in which they entered a realm called beyond shadows. I allowed myself to enter this realm; there, I had seen the spirits of many Jedi, Sith, and others who had practised under various other heretical beliefs throughout galactic history.

"However, the experience had left me severely weakened, to the point of near-death. Thus, if I am to return to the realm beyond shadows and learn from Garis Boric the ability to undo the coma in which he had placed your uncle, I will need your support."

"What exactly do you need me to do?" Jacen asked.

"Follow me to the realm beyond shadows, young Solo," Krayt said.

"Why?" Jacen asked. "You already have enough experience there. You could go and meet Garis Boric yourself and just learn from him; what use would I be to you there?"

Krayt sighed, as if he had been somehow defeated in this conversation. "Because, now, Jacen, I see how truly valuable you are in our war against Abeloth. Your uncle will still be necessary, but now, with your immunity to Abeloth's assimilation process and your Force-connection to her, you may very well be more important to her downfall than I realized."

"You almost make it sound as if I don't need you or my uncle to defeat her," Jacen suggested without mirth.

"But you will aid me, and you know why," Krayt said.

Jacen nodded. "Because I can't let Uncle Luke remain like this even if he wasn't key to Abeloth's defeat. And while you're here to help, I won't allow you to just die; it's my duty as a Jedi."

Krayt smirked, but said nothing. "And as long as our paths intertwine, you may expect no betrayal from me."

"As long as that is," Jacen agreed evenly.

"So, do we have a destination already?" Han asked.

Jacen and Krayt turned to find everyone in the passenger cabin looking at them expectantly.

"Yes, we do," Krayt said. "To the world of Korriban."

"Your home," Jacen said.

"As I have made it," Krayt said. "The Sith Temple there has certain requirements that I need to stay alive while you and I are beyond shadows."

"Then let's not waste anymore time," Jacen said.

Han nodded and headed to the cockpit with Leia.

Moments later, the _Falcon_ launched for Korriban.


	53. Chapter 53

In his quarters in Korriban's Sith Temple, Darth Wyyrlok went through the HoloNet on his personal datapad, horrified at what he read and saw from the news there.

Lord Krayt was not exaggerating about the threat that Abeloth posed to the galaxy, Wyyrlok surmised. Had he been standing up instead of resting on his cot, the Chagrian probably would have sank to his knees from the knowledge of Hapan Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo and so many others across the galaxy being absorbed into Abeloth.

When he put his 'pad back into its reserved pouch on his belt, Wyyrlok was about to stand up and go to his holoterminal to contact Krayt. But then his commlink beeped and he answered it.

"Lord Wyyrlok," TC-57's voice came, "I think it necessary to inform you that a VCX Corellian freighter has entered the system. It is not one of our ships."

"Thank you, I will sense who is aboard myself," Wyyrlok said before signing off and replacing the commlink to his belt.

He then shut his eyes and reached out to sense who was aboard this VCX; even as he plunged himself into focusing, Wyyrlok wondered why he hadn't sensed any new presences enter the Korr system...

The Chagrian's thought process was interrupted when he started to sense who was aboard this arriving vessel. At first, he couldn't get a tangible read of this new presence, as if whoever it was didn't want to be sensed.

Then the presence opened her identity and presence completely to Wyyrlok, as if releasing a massive burst of water from a dam.

Abeloth.

Wyyrlok shot to his feet, dashed out of his quarters, and headed to the nearest turbolift to get to the level where the Force Nullfier was. Moments later, he arrived on that level and hurried to the room where the Nullfier was kept.

As painful as it was to suddenly be robbed of the Force when he came into contact with the medallion, Wyyrlok also found a sort of relief from it; now he couldn't sense the abominable entity that was Abeloth. Still, he didn't relish even in that small comfort, because after he activated the Force Nullifier's amplifier, he headed back to the turbolift and took himself to the level where the anti-Nullfier chips were stored.

As he waited for the 'lift to take him to that level, Wyyrlok opened his commlink to address everyone in the Temple.

"This is Darth Wyyrlok. My apologies for not warning any of you that the Force Nullfier's amplifier would be activated. But now you must all proceed to whatever turbolift or emergency stairwell that is nearest to you so you may put on an anti-Nullifier chip. You will need one if we are to battle Abeloth; she is here."

He signed off and replaced his commlink again just as the 'lift doors opened. He sprinted out and headed to the vault where the anti-Nullfier chips were, and he was shortly joined by a little more than half a dozen One Sith members.

However, just as Wyyrlok got the vault opened, the Temple shook. The Chagrian and those with him froze in place. Then the Temple shook again.

"We're under attack!" someone in the small crowd exclaimed.

"Let's hope those new anti-air cannons can blow that ship out of the sky," Wyyrlok muttered. Then he entered the vault to pick an anti-Nullifier chip with the other One Sith followers.

. . .

The pilot of the VCX freighter whom Abeloth had assimilated was very capable, as she was able to deftly maneuver the ship around the turbolaser fire that was coming from various emplacements along the Sith Temple's surface below. And she was able to do so while making daring runs at several of the cannons that destroyed them.

Abeloth had hoped that she would be able to enter the Korr system unnoticed, even with the knowledge of the One Sith's presence here; that knowledge, of course, was gained from her assimilating several One Sith agents across the galaxy. However, when she felt the presence of whom she learned to be Darth Wyyrlok, she couldn't resist exposing her presence to him.

She wanted to feel his fear, to let him know that, unless he willingly submitted himself to assimilation, he was doomed to die a horrendous, mind-shattering death.

Unfortunately, what Abeloth didn't count on was the activation of the Force Nullfier's amplifier; while she was aware that the One Sith were in possession of this artifact, she didn't think that they would have the gall to use it to do battle with her. Now the entire Sith Temple was a void to her Force-senses, even though she could clearly see that its anti-air cannons were firing on her VCX.

There was no way that Abeloth would enter that Temple when it seemed to be a void in the Force. So, with no other choice, she decided to level this Temple and kill everyone in it; if these One Sith refused to surrender or even fight without their disgusting Force Nullifier, Abeloth had no problem in seeing to it that they simply died without literally adding to her own existence.

When Abeloth was about halfway in destroying the Sith Temple's anti-air cannons, it was then that several starfighters launched from the structure's hangar bay and began firing upon her VCX.

As the freighter was peppered with laser bolts from the One Sith ships, steadily weakening her shields even in spite of the assimilated pilot's skills, Abeloth growled, knowing that she wouldn't win this one.

Which left her with one other option.

Transforming from the appearance of the pilot to her true grey self, Abeloth leaped out through the forward viewport and latched onto the canopy of one of the enemy starfighters.

As the VCX crashed onto another of the Sith Temple's cannon emplacements, Abeloth ripped the canopy off of the One Sith starfighter and struck a tentacle down that pilot's throat. When that pilot was assimilated and turned against its brethren, Abeloth leaped to another fighter and repeated that process.

As several of the Sith ships went down, whether they were piloted by an actual One Sith member or another one of her avatars, Abeloth kept on creating more of herself until the only ships remaining in the sky were piloted by her.

And it was those fighters that turned against the last of the Sith Temple's anti-air cannons and destroyed them.

The unit of Abeloth who had leaped between all of the starfighters allowed herself to gently float down to the ground. Then she stood back and watched in glee as the starfighters piloted by the rest of herself reduced the Sith Temple to rubble.

Abeloth's happiness at her victory only doubled when she felt the void that had surrounded the now-leveled Temple be reduced to about ten or so meters.

So, unless there were more One Sith who happened to still live within those ten meters, there were now only a dozen presences exactly who lived within the rubble.

Abeloth approached the destroyed Sith Temple and swiped her powerful tentacles among the debris. She cleared enough out of the way to see many bloodied and burned corpses.

Those One Sith who still lived whom she found, she promptly stuck a tentacle down their throat.

When she finally came to Darth Wyyrlok, who was bleeding in several places and had many broken limbs, everyone whom she assimilated from this planet so far had surrounded the downed Chagrian. And it was the unit of herself who had been the pilot of the VCX who had bent down to observe him.

"You... will never... be... a god," Wyyrlok croaked.

"Goddess, if you will," Abeloth said. "And, yes, I will."

Wyyrlok was the last One Sith on Korriban whom Abeloth assimilated; and he died a mind-shattering death, as she vowed.

Then, after Abeloth's Wyyrlok avatar rose to her feet, completely healed of the injuries that the Chagrian had suffered before his assimilation, all of the entity's units on this planet turned to look as one out over the desolate landscape.

Now was the time to assimilate all those dregs on this planet who lived elsewhere.


	54. Chapter 54

Moments before the _Millennium Falcon_ dropped out into the Korriban system, Darth Krayt gasped in shock from where he sat in the passenger cabin.

"No!" he screamed.

"What is it?" Jacen asked as he started to make his way through the Jedi crowd to get to the Sith Master.

Once Jacen finally crouched down next to Krayt, the Sith only looked at the Jedi with the same look of shock but still didn't answer.

Jacen was about to ask again when the _Falcon_ finally dropped out of hyperspace. He then seized up, his eyes shutting closed, as he saw several different perspectives from behind his eyelids. Each perspective displayed a different part of a desolate desert world that Jacen could sense was heavily imbued by the dark side of the Force.

He knew right then that he was looking through the eyes of all the people whom Abeloth had assimilated on Korriban.

"Uh, Jacen, Krayt!" Han's voice called from the _Falcon_'s cockpit. "We got a problem here!"

Jacen and Krayt stood up and hurried for the cockpit. There, Han quickly showed them the information on the starfighters that were on Korriban's surface.

"And they're coming for us right now!" Leia was the one to conclude as she was looking at her own readouts.

Krayt turned to Jacen. "Solo, you said that you can teleport, correct?"

Jacen nodded. "I did."

"Then take us both down to Korriban near the Sith Temple," Krayt demanded. "We would not have to rely on your father's piloting skills to circumvent those starfighters."

"Hey, you watch your mouth!" Han exclaimed.

"We won't be able to get back immediately, just so you know," Jacen explained hurriedly as he and Krayt ignored Han. "It takes me at least half an hour before I can teleport again; and if my dad can't get through Abeloth's fighters to help us, we can be stuck down there."

"I will accept that risk," Krayt said. "What we need to recover from the Sith Temple is much too important not to retrieve."

"Then what do you need down there?" Jacen asked.

"Something that my followers and I used while you were our captive," Krayt explained.

"The Force Nullifier Vergere told me about," Jacen stated evenly.

Krayt confirmed that statement with a quick nod. "It may be a useful weapon against Abeloth. I was hoping that we would not have to resort to using it, but-"

"Fine, fine, I'll get us down there," Jacen said as he grabbed one of Krayt's hands and closed his eyes to concentrate on performing the Aing-Tii teleportation method.

"Now wait a minute, what-"

"Remain silent, Princess," Krayt interrupted Leia. "This may be our last resort against Abeloth." When the Sith looked back at Jacen, the Jedi was still concentrating on trying to teleport himself and Krayt down to Korriban.

Leia only sneered at the Sith but remained silent.

Seconds later, just as the starfighters on Korriban had finally broken through the atmosphere and entered space, Jacen and Krayt disappeared from the _Millennium Falcon_'s cockpit.

They then reappeared less than a dozen meters away from the ruins of the Sith Temple on the planet.

As Jacen and Krayt eyed the destruction before them, the latter snagged his arm away from the former's now-slackened grip and began running toward the remains.

Once they were just outside the perimeter of the leveled Temple, Jacen and Krayt used the Force to start moving debris and the occasional broken and bloodied One Sith corpse out of the way.

"Well, I guess it hasn't been a good week for either of our Orders, huh?" Jacen asked as he kept working. "Both our Temples crumble to the ground, we lose a great deal of members-"

"Stop talking," Krayt commanded. He didn't pause in his work, either.

"Why?" Jacen retorted mockingly. In spite of himself, his Jedi values, and all that he had gone through in the past decade, he couldn't help but feel to be in a gloating mood right now. "We can work and talk at the same time. You know, I can't help but think that some good came out of Abeloth's rise to power; at least your precious One Sith is no more."

It was then that Krayt stopped working as he flung the most recent piece of debris away and looked at Jacen, who still kept on working.

"Make no mistake, Solo," Krayt intoned. "The One Sith is very much alive. Even if all of my agents elsewhere in the galaxy were to die right now, the One Sith will continue to survive as long as I am alive. Is that clear?"

"Maybe the One Sith isn't dead yet," Jacen said, still not taking his concentration on moving the Sith Temple's debris out of the way. "But I'm pretty sure this is gonna prove to be quite a setback in your plans for galactic domination."

Krayt then halted Jacen in his work by grabbing him by the shoulder and turning him so that they were face-to-face.

"It will not be as much of a setback as you might think, Jedi," Krayt growled.

Before Jacen could come up with a rebuke, both he and Krayt looked up as they heard the screams of various starfighters descending down through Korriban's atmosphere.

"Abeloth has found out that we are here," Krayt said as he turned back and resumed removing the debris of the Sith Temple out of the way. "We must find the Force Nullifier quickly."

Jacen said nothing more as he also resumed the task at hand, ever aware of the approaching starfighters above getting nearer to him and Krayt.

A minute later, after removing one last piece of debris, Jacen found the Force Nullifier lying a little over ten meters from himself and Krayt.

"Get it!" Krayt demanded.

Jacen didn't hesitate to rush over to it; considering the circumstances, now wasn't the time to argue.

Seconds later, he reached the Nullifier and picked it up; Krayt remained well outside of the medallion's effective range.

"Now what do I do with it?" Jacen asked.

Before Krayt could say anything, the multitude of starfighters under Abeloth's control started to fire upon both the Jedi and Sith. Neither of them said anything before they each broke into a parallel run, with Krayt always staying more than ten meters from Jacen as turbolaser fire rained down around them.

Ahead of Jacen and Krayt was nothing but desert for kilometers around. As a result, neither of them could find any cover and could do nothing more than dodge out of the way of the hail of giant lasers from the fighters above them for about two minutes.

At the end of those two minutes, however, the patterns of laserfire started to decrease. Jacen and Krayt, who each continued to run, both risked looking back up simultaneously and found that not only had a few starfighters been completely blown out of the sky, but some of them were now engaging in a dogfight with the _Millennium Falcon_.

Still, even with the reduced fire focusing on him and Krayt, Jacen got too close to a turbolaser from a fighter that wasn't engaged with the _Falcon_. Thus, he was blown off course several meters to his left, where he landed on his back while the Force Nullifier flew away from his grasp by several meters.

When Jacen reached out for it, a turbolaser struck the very spot where the Nullifier lay.

What happened next, Jacen couldn't fully comprehend. But what he was aware of was a bright flashing of white light accompanied by a soft whistling, as if he had just been deafened.

Then, just as his senses came back to him, Jacen felt a rumble not through his physical being, but through his senses in the Force.

In the physical plane, Jacen had been blown back by the proximity of that last turbolaser strike; but upon landing on his back, he started to scream out in pain.

That was just as Krayt seized up and screamed out in pain.

And that was just as all the Force-sensitives aboard the _Falcon_ screamed out in pain.

And that was definitely when Abeloth, in all of her avatars on Korriban, and even some in nearby systems, screamed out in pain.

For less than a quarter of a minute, this unified scream of pain endured.

Then, when it finally passed, Jacen and Krayt looked from their positions and found that the Force Nullifier...

Was still intact.

It had been surrounded by a glassy hole in the ground, courtesy of that recent turbolaser strike, but the Nullifier was still very much intact.

Jacen stood up, not even cognizant of the fact that the remaining starfighters piloted by Abeloth's avatars were now flying off into Korriban's skies. As Jacen slowly approached the Nullifier, the _Millennium Falcon_, which didn't even bother trying to go after any of the fleeing avatars, set down near Jacen and Krayt; the Sith seemed to be just as mesmerized by the Nullifier's survival as much as Jacen, even as he still kept well away from it.

When Jacen picked up the Nullifier, which felt lukewarm at worst in his hands (as if it hadn't just sustained a hit by a turbolaser), the _Falcon_ had landed near him and Krayt. However, Jacen's attention was riveted by what he was sensing from the medallion; his eyes had closed instinctively, and from it, he saw a large door with a small circular incision in it.

Moments later, as Jacen, whose vision came and went very quickly, continued to stare in awe at the medallion, the ship's boarding ramp lowered to the ground and Han came out exclaiming, "Okay, what the hell just happened?! Why was everyone screaming, why did all those Abeloths just flee, and what are you holding there, Jacen?"

Jacen turned to face Krayt, Han, and everyone who was now disembarking from the _Falcon_.

"Krayt, you were right," Jacen said. "This may be the key to killing Abeloth once and for all?"

"How so?" Krayt asked.

"In a literal sense," Jacen answered.


	55. Chapter 55

Because of what has been called the Infestation, Coruscant and several other Galactic Alliance planets, occupied moons, and stations had been quarantined to prevent the hive-minded entity that few knew to be named Abeloth from entering any other known locations and assimilating more people. Any and all ships that attempted to enter Coruscant or any of these other worlds and locations were immediately blown to atoms by the GA military ships that defended them. It was a virtually full-proof plan that ensured that the likes of Chief of State Daala (and her GA citizenry, of course) wouldn't be assimilated.

But Daala herself knew that couldn't be the case forever. And that was why she decided to schedule a meeting with Imperial Head of State Jagged Fel in the office of his embassy.

"I'll be needing Tahiri Veila," Daala said as she sat in one of the guest chairs on the opposite side of where Jag was.

"I already told you, Chief Daala," Jag said. "As long as Miss Veila is here, under my protection, you cannot-"

"I didn't come here to get her arrested," Daala said, "or murdered, if that's what you think, Fel. No, I came here because I require her services."

"Services? What kind of services?"

"The kind that can detect this entity and can allow imports and exports to get to and from Coruscant."

"You think that Tahiri can sense the entity that's been causing this Infestation that's got Queen Mother Tenel Ka and so many other countless people throughout the galaxy?" Jag asked.

"As a Force-sensitive, she has the greatest chance of finding that out," Daala pointed out. "And no one among my staff can come up with any other solution that can make this galaxy safe for, well, anyone."

Jag conceded that point with a nod. "If Abeloth can't assimilate all of us, she can probably-"

"Wait, wait, Abeloth?" Daala asked. "That's her name?"

"Well, yeah," Jag affirmed casually.

"How do you know that?"

Jag froze in his seat as he thought for a moment. "Tahiri told me," he said.

"Really? And how did she come by this knowledge?"

"I think the best answer that I can come up with is that she has the Force," Jag stated mildly.

"The Force told her this entity's name? Interesting; I was under the impression that the Force was much too vague to provide a specific piece of information like that."

"Sometimes, it might not be that vague at all," Jag said with a dismissive shrug. "It can be quite obvious if just the right opportunity presents-"

"Enough," Daala said. "I didn't come here to discuss how you and Miss Veila know about this creature's name." In other words, she was willing to let go of whatever suspicions she may have toward Jag about his knowledge so that they could stay focused on the matter at hand. "I need her to act as someone who can detect this Abeloth and weed her out so she can be blown out of the sky without killing any innocent people; we can't afford to bring anyone aboard any of our ships or stations because she can easily overpower GA troops. You've seen what she can do through those holorecordings on Borleias and Corulag, right?"

Jag offered another nod. Broadcasts from the HoloNet, courtesy of reporters who have either escaped or whom have been assimilated by Abeloth, have shown that on many worlds, this entity had been a virtually unstoppable presence who seemed to be immune to blasterfire fired by soldiers. It would take a great deal of collateral damage just to kill her, and even many starfighters had been lost to her avatars just jumping at them from ground level, breaking through their canopies, and assimilating the pilots in moments.

"And we both know, as I'm sure you were going to tell me before I cut you off about your knowledge of this entity's name," Daala said, "that worlds like Coruscant don't really have much in the way of natural resources. We rely primarily on imported foodstuffs from worlds that are still rich in farming and the like; and whatever we can grow from here would be vastly inadequate to feed this planet's population, even if we were to solely focus on the elite here."

"Thus, Tahiri, as you believe, would be able to sniff out Abeloth, and if the person or people aboard an incoming ship are who they say they are, they can come in through this planet's orbital defenses and provide the populace with food and other resources," Jag concluded.

"Exactly."

"Of course, that still leaves out so many other worlds like Coruscant, like Denon for instance, that are primarily reliant on imported foodstuffs," Jag pointed out. "And, moreover, certain planets that provide these imports, many of which are now known to be Infested by Abeloth, require the GA forces around them to let these ships leave the system. And the people behind those forces aren't Force-sensitive, so they wouldn't really know who they were letting go."

"I'm willing to take that risk of letting ships that may have Abeloth aboard to leave their respective planets," Daala said. "After all, they would be blown out of the sky if Miss Veila senses that entity aboard any of them. As for worlds other than Coruscant that rely on imported food and resources, I'm afraid they'll have to wait; Coruscant must come first."

Jag scoffed. "You know, if you didn't have your Mandos besiege the Jedi Temple, you could have the Jedi dispatched to other worlds so they can be used to find out if Abeloth-"

"I'm not having this conversation," Daala interrupted with a firm wave of her hand. "Just get Veila to agree to this, and I promise she won't be harmed."

"Quite frankly, I'm not sure if your promises are worth anything," Jag said bluntly.

Daala's nostrils flared at this. "Listen, Fel, now is not the time for us to devolve into petty arguments about who can trust who. With Abeloth on the loose in the galaxy, I will do whatever I have to to maintain the survival, if not safety, of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. That is my sworn duty when I became Chief of State of this government, and if that means that I have to resort to using a Jedi to help me, I will _gladly_ do it."

It was then that the door to Jag's office slid open. At the sound of that, Daala turned in her seat to find Tahiri Veila standing there with an expectant gaze.

"I sense your sincerity, Chief Daala," Tahiri said confidently. "So, if it means that I can help the fine people of Coruscant, I will _gladly_ act as your lapdog and sniff out Abeloth, as Jag put it. Oh, and that's ex-Jedi, by the way."

"How long have you been listening in on this conversation?" Daala asked.

"Oh, since the beginning," Tahiri admittedly with ironic sheepishness.

"Wouldn't the guards I stationed be..." Daala trailed off as she now saw the GA sentries she posted outside Jag's office resting up against the threshold outside the door, right between Tahiri. "You knocked them out, didn't you?"

"They weren't Mandos, so they weren't that difficult to take out," Tahiri stated. "I didn't even have to engage 'em head-to-head, so if you were wondering why you didn't hear any noises that might have indicated some kind of fight outside this room, I just waved my hand and knocked them both out with the Force."

Daala breathed through her nose and stood up from her seat to approach Tahiri.

"I'm glad to know you didn't break either of their bones," Daala intoned once she was a few inches from the ex-Jedi.

Tahiri tilted her head to the right; and with the expression on her face, she basically said without using any words, _Yeah, so?_

"Wake them up," Daala said. "And we can go."

Tahiri pointed both hands at each unconscious guard's helmeted head, and in an instant, they both scrambled to their feet to level their carbines upon her.

"Stand down," Daala commanded immediately. "She'll be coming with us."

The guard to Daala's left then reached a hand away from his carbine to get a pair of stuncuffs there.

"Not as a prisoner," Daala corrected with a reluctant tone. "But as the newest member of security for this planet against this Infestation entity."

Neither guard complained of this sudden arrangement.

Daala then turned back to Jag. "Until we meet again, Head of State Fel."

Jag gave a wordless nod before Daala left with her guards and Tahiri.


	56. Chapter 56

Days before Hapan Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo was assimilated by Abeloth, Lost Tribe of the Sith High Lord Sarasu Taalon's ChaseMaster fleet had made quick work at destroying the Golan platforms that defended Nam Chorios. The Galactic Alliance Star Destroyer _Predator_ had been severely beaten by the overwhelming numbers of the Lost Tribe capital ships and was forced to make an emergency jump into hyperspace. This allowed Taalon's ChaseMasters to commence an orbital bombardment of Nam Chorios in relative peace; that peace was relative because the powerful Force-storms that raged on the planet made it impossible for the capital ships to know if any of their turbolaser fire would strike a location that Abeloth happened to be at.

Taalon decided to just raze Nam Chorios whole; the planet meant nothing to the Lost Tribe, so it made no difference if rendering it completely desolate meant that they could destroy Abeloth's avatars here.

Thus, in a matter of hours, the Force-storms on Nam Chorios had completely died out. The ChaseMasters, who had completed their orbital razing of the planet, reported that there was no sign of life anywhere on Nam Chorios; this was confirmed by both their lifesign scans and by the Force-senses of the crews aboard each ship.

However, the mission's success was quickly called into question by Tyro Vestara Khai when she informed Taalon of something very concerning on the bridge of his flagship, the _Black Wave_.

"When I was with the task force that included Darth Krayt and his people," Khai told the High Lord, "we sensed no life from either our scans or Force-senses at Pydyr. But then Abeloth had appeared to us, both through the Force and by attacking us with a fleet of ships that she amassed from the surface."

"So she could still be alive down there," Taalon stated.

Khai nodded. "It's a strong possibility, my Lord."

"Well, unfortunately, we don't have the resources to completely blow up this planet," Taalon said. "However, we did make sure that there aren't any ships down there that Abeloth could use to escape. So, if she is still alive down there, she would be stranded with no way off."

"My Lord, forgive me for speaking out of turn." Khai's father, Sith Saber Gavar, who also happened to be on the _Black Wave_'s bridge with Vestara and Taalon, had sidled up next to his daughter and the High Lord. "But may I suggest we send a landing party to-"

"No, if Abeloth is still alive down there as your daughter suggests, Saber Khai," Taalon interrupted, "we may lose more of our people to her. So we must move on."

"But what if some hapless being goes down to the planet to investigate what happened and-"

"Enough, Saber Khai," Taalon said. "Until we can find a way to engage Abeloth in personal combat without endangering the lives of any of our own, we cannot risk that entity adding to her existence by assimilating anymore of the Lost Tribe. So, again, we must leave this system and continue our hunt for Abeloth elsewhere, where we may destroy her from the safety of our ChaseMasters; we have no choice but to trust that she is dead down there." The idea that any surviving avatars down on the surface could very well be picked up by an avatar that currently has a spacefaring vessel was one that Taalon didn't want to voice; and he hoped that neither Khai would do so, either.

Taalon looked back to Vestara. "Tyro Khai, where must we go next?"

Vestara wasn't required to answer immediately. Instead, she sat down on the deck in a cross-legged position and closed her eyes.

As Gavar returned to his own duties on the bridge, Taalon waited for Vestara to come out of her meditative tracking of Abeloth.

When Vestara opened her eyes, she stood up, walked to one of the _Black Wave_'s nav stations, and gave the operator there a set of coordinates. Taalon joined Vestara at the nav station as the operator input the coordinates.

The High Lord looked at the readouts of where those coordinates would take them. "The Kathol Rift," he said aloud.

Moments later, with the ChaseMaster task force's new heading, they jumped out of the Chorios system.

Later, on the day that Tenel Ka was assimilated by Abeloth, Taalon's ChaseMaster task force finally entered the Kathol Rift.

But when the ChaseMasters passed into the Rift, everyone aboard the _Black Wave_ and her subordinate ships started to see horrifying hallucinations around them.

The usual terrifying images—spiders, insects, and other lifeforms that sentients such as humans and Keshiri found to be highly undesirable and even abominable on some level—appeared around them. Every Lost Tribe member aboard Taalon's ChaseMasters, including the High Lord himself, was frantically grabbing and scratching at themselves to get rid of non-existent pests and other disgusting lifeforms from their persons.

And soon, what started as mere surface-level scratches turned into most of the Lost Tribe members clawing at their faces and bodies until they went into physical shock over the injuries that they unknowingly brought upon themselves. Many of the Sith victims even used their own lightsabers on themselves out of fear that some kind of parasite was going to burst out of their chests or some other such thing.

But for few members in the Lost Tribe ChaseMasters, like Taalon, the two Khais, and several others, they managed to master themselves and controlled their own fears long enough to see those hallucinations disappear.

The survivors soon found themselves in the reality of bloodied and lightsaber-maimed corpses lying all around them.

But before Taalon could make a comm call to the other ChaseMasters, he suddenly seized up in front of Vestara, Gavar, and the other survivors on the _Black Wave_'s bridge. Then the High Lord activated his lightsaber and began swinging it around before him, as if trying to cut something apart.

Half a minute of this swinging later, Taalon ceased it when he spread his arms apart as if something had suddenly grabbed him.

Then, in one unexpected, and final, motion, High Lord Sarasu Taalon lifted up the arm in which his lightsaber was held and plunged it down his own throat. He then dropped dead to the deck as his lightsaber rolled away from his grasp, deactivated.

Vestara's own horror only grew as she watched the other survivors on the _Black Wave_'s bridge do the exact same motions as Taalon before they, too, plunged their lightsabers down their own throats.

Once it came down to her and her father, Vestara rushed toward him just as he was making the lightsaber strikes.

"Father, stop it!" Vestara said. "There's nothing th-"

But instead of plunging the lightsaber down his throat, he suddenly plunged it through his stomach; he had stopped swinging much sooner than the others.

Vestara froze from where she was then and saw her father look toward her. He only gave her a sad smile before collapsing to his knees and then to his side; Vestara suddenly felt cold as the life drained from her father's body.

"Go on, child."

At the sound of that voice, Vestara then turned toward the viewport of the _Black Wave_'s bridge and saw the speaker, Abeloth, standing there in all of her hideous glory (if that's what it could be called).

"Oh, how delicious this experience has been!" Abeloth exclaimed. "You have been in nearly every one of these encounters, child! Well, all of the successful ones, anyway. And you have made it through each of them without either adding to my existence or dying like so much other swine in this galaxy! So, for that, I do not believe that this will be the time for you to join me in worship of the Queen of the Stars. No; you will see this to the end. And only when it is the end will you join me; your destiny, as dictated by the Force, will not lead you down to some ignoble death; but instead, it will, well..." Abeloth trailed off as she started to chuckle away.

She still chuckled as she faded out of Vestara's sight; yet the entity's laugh remained with the Tyro. Her grief for her father's loss mixed with her panic, blurring her vision as she began to cry; but that still didn't stop her from turning around and running off the bridge to escape the _Black Wave_.

As Vestara ran, she occasionally bumped into things here and there from lack of proper balance due to her current emotional instability. And that instability was only increased as Abeloth's laughter remained with Vestara. It did, however, motivate her further into heading for the _Black Wave_'s hangar bay, where she eventually found and boarded an X-wing; she launched away from the ChaseMaster without any delay.

Yet Abeloth's laughter didn't leave Vestara until she finally left the Kathol Rift.


	57. Chapter 57

The Force Nullifier was kept in a storage locker located somewhere in the rear of the _Millennium Falcon_, which allowed it to be as far away as possible from all of the Force-sensitives who were occupying the ship's passenger cabin. And with the Nullifier's effective range being about ten meters, it actually wasn't that hard on any of the Jedi or one Sith who were now eating the last of the rations that the _Falcon_ had for them.

C-3PO, by order of Captain Han Solo, was the one to take all of the empty ration pack containers by going around the passenger cabin with a sizable trash bin. As he did this, he complained aloud with, "What an impossible man! I am a protocol droid, not a service droid! Although I guess one could say that protocol droids are service droids in a sense in that translating languages is a service..."

Everyone in the cabin ignored him as they threw their waste in the bin, and no one paid him any mind even as he left the cabin to dump the contents out of the _Falcon_'s waste chute.

As Threepio carried out his duties, Jacen had a small gathering around him in the cabin assembled; the people consisted of his parents, Danni, the remaining Jedi Masters, Jaina, Allana, and, of course, Darth Krayt.

"We gotta make a pit stop somewhere and soon," Han said. "We gotta resupply on food and water. And while I appreciate everyone here slowing down their metabolisms with the Force, I'm pretty sure we're all aware that's not gonna last forever."

"Duly noted," Krayt said evenly.

Han looked at the Sith Master with a sneer.

"All right, let's get started," Jacen said.

He then told everyone in the group about his vision of the giant door on Korriban. Krayt was the first one to speak up once Jacen was done relaying what he saw.

"Was there anything more about this door that you can describe?" the Sith Master asked.

Jacen thought about it for a moment. Then he shook his head. "I can't even remember what color it was. All I can remember is that incision, like a keyhole, which I'm convinced is where that Force Nullifier is supposed to fit."

"You don't even remember anything about your surroundings?" Kyp asked. "Anything that might give us a clue to where this door can be, what its importance is? If it even exists?"

Jacen shrugged. "That's just it, I honestly don't know."

"Well, wherever this door is, and I believe that it exists," Krayt spoke up, "it may very well be central to defeating Abeloth. Solo, if the Force granted you a vision of this door, it is more than likely of great significance against her. However, we must obviously find out what that significance is and, again, where it is."

"Yeah, but the real question is," Corran Horn said, "is how do we go about retrieving that information?"

"Anyone got any ideas?" Han asked.

No one answered; everyone gathered either expressed contemplation or frustration on their faces as they all thought about what they should do.

That silence was soon brought to an end, however, when Jacen couldn't help but notice an uncomfortable look on Danni's face. And at the same time, he felt an uncomfortable sense emanating from her.

"Danni? What is it?" Jacen asked.

"What?" Danni asked, as if she had been brought out of a bout of daydreaming.

"Is there something on your mind?" Jacen asked. "Do... do you have an idea about what we can do?"

Danni was silent for a moment; it was then that everyone else in the circle was looking at her expectantly.

Finally, she sighed in defeat. "Yes, I think have an idea. But I don't think anyone here's gonna like it. In fact, I definitely know I won't like it."

Jacen nodded. "Go ahead then."

After a moment, Danni said, "I think we should repeat the laser strike on the Force Nullifier."

Predictably, everyone in the group, including Han, the only non-Force-sensitive aboard the _Millennium Falcon_, looked at Danni in askance. Even Jacen's understanding look quickly turned skeptical.

"I know, I know, after what everyone—well, almost everyone—went through when that medallion got hit," Danni said with a defensive wave of her hands, "none of us wanna go through that again. But unless all of us wanna go blindly out in the galaxy looking for Jacen's special door, I think that the most logical course of action is to commence an experiment on the Nullifier."

"What do you hope that firing on this Nullifier will accomplish, aside from giving all of us Force-sensitives here another serious bout of pain?" Krayt asked.

"Hopefully," Danni said, "a repeat of what happened to the Nullifier might grant Jacen a broader Force-vision that can tell him, and, by extension, us, more about this door. Like its location, for instance."

"You don't know that," Octa Ramis was the one to say. "For all we know, a repeat of hitting the Force Nullifier with a turbolaser strike might just also be a repeat of our experience over Korriban. It might yield us nothing but more of that pain that we felt through the Force."

"Perhaps," Jacen said. "But, really, what other options do we have? Even if Danni's theory is wrong, she is right that we might never find this door if we just scour the galaxy aimlessly. The odds are against us in that regard." He held up a hand to forestall a predictably Corellian comment from his father. "I know, Dad, no need for you to tell me what not to tell you."

Han shrugged sheepishly. "I wasn't gonna say anything," he said in a mock-hurt tone.

Everyone else in the Solo family raised an eyebrow at this in unison.

Jacen then returned his attention to the scientist next to him. "Danni, do you think it's advisable to be near the Force Nullifier again like I was on Korriban when it was hit by that laser?"

Danni's mouth opened, only for her to freeze there and not say anything.

"You aren't sure, huh?" Jacen asked.

"I'm honestly not sure about any of this, Jacen," Danni replied. "This is all just guesswork. Look, I don't wanna put you in any danger, but you were the closest one to the Force Nullifier when it was hit." She shrugged. "Maybe your proximity to it was part of the vision."

"I cannot believe that I am the one to say this," Krayt said, "but this sounds unnecessarily risky."

"But Danni could be right," Jacen said.

"_Could be_ is not enough to justify this reckless experiment, Solo," Krayt argued. "I hated to say this before, and I hate to say this again, but you are too valuable to us in our war with Abeloth to risk killing. That shot that was made on the Nullifier was way too close, and to try to replicate this event deliberately simply because there is no obvious alternative is, quite frankly, stupid."

"And I hate to say that I agree with this slime, Jacen," Han said.

"Me, too," Leia said.

"Me, three," Jaina chimed in.

"For once, and I think I can comfortably speak for all of us here, we can all agree with this bastard," Kyp said. "Besides, Jacen, we don't even know if you actually had to be right there when the Force Nullifier was hit; you may very well have gotten that vision regardless of your proximity to it."

"That may be the case, Kyp, but I still want to try it," Jacen insisted. He then looked to his parents. "Mom, Dad, please. This may be our only chance to find a way to stop Abeloth. Look, Danni could be completely wrong, of course, but, again, what else can we reasonably do?" He shrugged. "Maybe doing something this unreasonable is what helps us out in the end."

"You really think you can easily convince your mother and me to let you risk your life like that, Jacen?" Han asked.

"You refuse to help me out in this, Dad?"

"Maybe I am," Han replied stubbornly.

"Mom, can't you-"

"Jacen, we just got you back in our lives," Leia said, "after we thought you were dead. After we thought you were Caedus. Now you're asking us to just risk your life on some threadbare theory to destroy an entity? I understand the stakes here, Jacen, I understand what kind of threat Abeloth poses to the galaxy, your father and I both do. But I think you're asking a little much to put your life in our hands."

"If you don't want any part in this, Mom and Dad, then I'm sure someone else here will."

"No," Han said firmly.

Father and son stared intently at each other for a long, silent moment.

Then it was Han who said, "I'll do it."

While Jacen regarded his father with some mild curiosity, Leia looked at her husband with shock.

"I'll be the one to fire the laser on the Nullifier with you near it, Jacen," Han elaborated reluctantly.

"What?" she asked.

"Our son's made up his mind, Leia," Han said. "Not even I can change it. Nor you."

Leia looked from Han to Jacen and stared at the latter for a long moment.

Then she mirrored the defeated sigh that her husband gave when he relented.

"Jacen," Leia said as she put a hand on one of her son's, "are you really sure you wanna do this?"

He nodded confidently. "I think this is the right course of action, Mom." He looked to his father. "After all, pain and sacrifice are cornerstones to what build us up as sentient beings. To shy away from it is to deny our developments into what we can truly become." Vergere's shadowmoth story had crossed Jacen's mind in that moment.

Han nodded at his son. "You're old enough to make your own decisions, kid. Your mom and I won't stop you."

"Thanks," Jacen said.

"I still believe this is a mistake," Krayt said.

"Your opinion is, as you said, duly noted," Jacen replied firmly.

"Well, in that case," Kyp said, "we could use this opportunity to restock on food and water to test this potentially suicidal experiment and see if it works the way Danni thinks it will." He looked at her with an expectant gaze. "I really don't wanna have to go through that again, you know."

Danni shook her head. "Neither do I, honestly."

"All right, I'll go see where the nearest inhabited planet is at our speed," Han said as he stood up. "Jacen, as soon as we drop out, you let me know as soon as possible if Abeloth happens to be there, okay?"

Jacen nodded before his father turned away and returned to the _Falcon_'s cockpit with Leia. Most of the rest of the gathering then moved away from Jacen to return to their previous positions in the passenger cabin.

"If this idea of yours doesn't work and I get vaporized by a misfired laser strike from the _Falcon_," Jacen said to Danni, "I'll haunt you as a Force-ghost for the rest of your days."

Danni couldn't help but smile. "That honestly doesn't sound like a bad idea."

Jacen chuckled a little at that in spite of himself.

Minutes later, the YT-1300 dropped out of hyperspace to enter the Qiilura system. Jacen was, of course, on hand to let his parents and Krayt (who stood just outside the cockpit expectantly) know whether or not Abeloth was present anywhere in the system; she wasn't.

Because the planet of Qiilura had fallen to the Yuuzhan Vong during their invasion of the galaxy, its inhabitants, both the native shape-shifting Gurlanins and New Republic settlers, had struggled to recover from the environmental damage that was done to the farmlands and forests. And because the Galactic Alliance had been too busy trying to build itself up even in the years following the Vong War, worlds like Qiilura fell to the wayside and were left to fend for themselves; even after all the years that had passed since the extragalactic invasion, the GA still did nothing to help Qiilura get back on its feet, even with what helping hand the Jedi Order was able to lend.

So, as it was, there were very few establishments on Qiilura, which were surviving New Republic holdovers that managed to get back into some working shape, which could have helped the _Millennium Falcon_ restock on food and water. One such establishment was a docking bay that had looked like it had been raided sometime in the past ten years, but which still lived on, like the ageing Rodian proprietor who ran the place.

It surprisingly didn't take long for Han to negotiate prices with him, and soon, he had the _Falcon_ restocked with enough supplies for everyone aboard to eat and drink for a week... assuming that they all used the Force to conserve what they now had.

Thus, with the _Falcon_ restocked, Han piloted the ship to a valley several kilometers away that was entirely Vongformed. Yorik coral and other Yuuzhan Vong lifeforms thrived as if they belonged here since Qiilura could support life, a stark contrast to the native vegetation and lifeforms that had originated here. The mere sight of this alien terraforming sent shivers down the spines of most everyone who looked upon it from any of the _Falcon_'s viewports; memories of the Vong War, as distant as they may now be, were still very hurtful for those involved.

The only ones who looked upon the Vongforming with any degree of detachment were Jacen and Krayt; their feelings about the Yuuzhan Vong were too mixed for them to think one way or the other about what they were seeing.

Eventually, however, the _Falcon_ set down in a clearing in this valley, allowing Jacen to leave via the boarding ramp with the Force Nullifier in hand.

The YT-1300 then ascended rapidly about fifty meters in the air as Jacen laid the Nullifier down on the ground and stood a few meters away from it; he was now roughly the same distance from the medallion that he was when Abeloth had fired upon it on Korriban.

He looked up and sent a slight Force-nudge to Danni's Force-presence.

In the _Falcon_'s cockpit, Danni said, "Fire."

With only a moment's hesitation, Han had the ship's belly turret fire a single laser bolt down in Jacen and the Nullifier's general vicinity.

Mere seconds later, the laser struck the medallion exactly as it had been directed; against all odds, and even without any manipulation of the Force from either Jedi or Sith, the Nullifier was once again hit.

As the resultant blast knocked Jacen off his feet, he was once again enveloped in a white world of sense deprivation. Then reality kicked back in to him as he hit the yorik coral on his back. He once again felt that dreadful sense of Force-pain run throughout his whole being; but in spite of that, he still had enough strength to get himself up on his knees and crawl to the still-intact Nullifier.

The pain was still lasting even as his right hand touched it.

And, indeed, something did happen.

Once again, he was plunged into a vision where he saw that door. This time, however, he took note of his surroundings; he stood in some kind of dark void.

No. No, it wasn't dark. In fact, it was actually quite colorful. It looked to Jacen like he was in... in... in some kind of nebula. He looked at this nebula in awe, not taking in its details as a more analytical mind might do, but he simply absorbed what he was seeing, like a toddler seeing so many new things for the first time.

Once he was done looking at this nebula, he looked at his hand and found that the Force Nullifier had followed him here. His attention returned to the door; looking once more between the door and the medallion, Jacen walked toward the former.

He then placed the medallion in the door's circular incision. Jacen turned it.

Then the door parted before him and...

He was brought back to the _Millennium Falcon_'s passenger cabin; his parents, Krayt, Danni, and the surviving Jedi Masters were surrounding him as he lay on the deck.

"What happened, Jacen?" Danni asked as she and the others helped him to his feet. "You were out for about an hour!"

"Where's the Nullifier?" Jacen asked.

Danni shook her head in confusion. "It's back in the storage locker, like before. Jacen, what-"

"I need to see a starchart," Jacen said quickly.

"What?" Danni asked.

"I said I need to see a starchart," he said with more urgency.

Danni nodded and let him see a starchart from one of the _Falcon_'s records.

After several minutes of looking through various starcharts, he finally found one that matched what he was looking for; the nebula itself was located somewhere in Wild Space.

"There it is," Jacen said as he pointed at the image of the nebula. "The Chiloon Rift. That's where we'll find the door."


	58. Chapter 58

In the two days since Tahiri agreed to act as a detector for Abeloth over Coruscant, traffic to and from the planet restarted, allowing for goods and services to resume. Granted, since Tahiri was only one Force-sensitive using her extra senses to mentally sift through thousands of incoming and outgoing ships per day, the allowance of traffic was significantly slower than it had been before Abeloth became widely known as a threat in the galaxy.

And the task was, of course, incredibly exhausting for Tahiri herself. Because of the demands that were being placed on her as she served aboard the bridge of the GA Star Destroyer _Defender_, Captain Plesta Jecki—a male Rodian—was surprisingly gracious enough to let the former Jedi sit in the command chair; that way, there was less of a chance that Tahiri might pass out via exhaustion from having to sense the presences of so many people coming into and leaving the Coruscant system.

Naturally, however, there were times when Tahiri simply had no choice but to relax, hydrate, nourish, and otherwise relieve herself from the _Defender_'s bridge. It was during those times, especially when she had to get a decent eight hours of sleep, where traffic was outright halted by the planet's defensive forces; anyone who didn't obey those strictures while Tahiri had rested were blown out of the sky.

It was Captain Jecki's obligation to inform Tahiri of the people who lost their lives because she had to rest. It hurt her both times knowing that there were people who died because she simply wasn't enough for this task.

Still, however, Tahiri soldiered on as she sifted through the presences that came to and from Coruscant. So far, in all the time that she was working, she caught no inkling that Abeloth had ever been in the system since her failed attack on Coruscant.

But right after she had allowed a Wookiee cargo vessel transporting foodstuffs to enter the planet's atmosphere, yet another ship, a Gran freighter, entered the system. However, instead of Force-sensing the people aboard and confirming that they weren't assimilated by Abeloth, Tahiri froze in horror as she sensed multiple units of the entity aboard the freighter.

"What is it?" Captain Jecki asked. "Is it Abeloth?"

Tahiri looked at him. "It is," she whispered.

"Fire on that Gran freighter!" Jecki ordered one of his turbolaser operators; there wasn't an iota of hesitation on either of their parts.

But just as the shot was fired, the Abeloths all disappeared from it.

And just as the Gran freighter was blown up by the turbolaser, a dozen beings of various species suddenly appeared on the _Defender_'s bridge. They were arrayed in a circle and looking out at the Star Destroyer's crew members with voracious expressions.

Every single one of these beings then spontaneously underwent changes to their faces. Their eyes all turned into well-like pits showing only pinpricks of light, as if they were distant stars. And their faces extended so that their teeth became razor-sharp fangs that could bite through sinew and bone as if they were some kind of soft candy.

Jecki didn't have to order anyone to do anything; all of the bridge officers stopped what they were doing when they saw who the new arrivals were. Swiftly, they all stood ready and leveled their sidearms at the dozen Abeloths who were now among them.

But the bolts that were fired had virtually no effect on any of the avatars as their arms turned into tentacles, which then lashed out upon everyone on the bridge. People were soon thrown or smacked about every which way before they all had a tentacle plunged down their throat to be assimilated.

For Tahiri's part, a surge of adrenaline coursed through her system as she leaped from the command chair with her lightsaber in hand and active. She slashed at one of Abeloth's human avatars, which only succeeded in forcing that unit of existence to back up a few steps in mild pain before lashing a tentacle out at Tahiri.

Tahiri dodged the attack, but then found herself on the defensive as this avatar began furiously striking its tentacles out at her. The former Jedi was forced back along the bridge as she parried the tentacles away with her lightsaber until her back hit the bulkhead behind her, which was only a few meters from the bridge's exit.

When that happened, a tentacle managed to get past Tahiri's defenses and smacked her in her midsection before wrapping itself around her upper body.

But right before the tip of that tentacle could enter Tahiri's mouth, Captain Jecki threw the avatar off-balance by jumping onto its back. This prompted the tentacle that had Tahiri wrapped in its embrace to throw her off so that she landed right at the threshold of the exit of the _Defender_'s bridge.

When Tahiri looked up, she saw that Jecki had been thrown to the deck by the human avatar's other tentacle, which then wrapped itself around the Rodian's body.

"Go, Veila!" Jecki screamed. "Just get outta here! Just get-"

But he could say no more as the tentacle that had caught him plunged itself into his mouth.

Tahiri knew that it was over for Jecki. And as she saw that everyone else on the bridge had been assimilated and were now looking directly at her, she wasted no time as she pushed herself to her feet and rushed off the bridge.

But as she hurried down the first corridor, the avatars who were just on the bridge suddenly started to appear before her. She managed to pass them by bounding off the corridor walls and leaping over them, batting away their tentacle strikes with her lightsaber in the process, as she made her way to the nearest turbolift that could take her to the _Defender_'s hangar bay.

Along the way, however, other _Defender_ crew members appeared in the corridor from various intersections and inadvertently drew the attention of the teleporting avatars by firing their sidearms at them. Naturally, those crew members found themselves assimilated within moments, and Tahiri privately lamented that she could do nothing to save any of them.

Eventually, she made it to the closest turbolift from the bridge and slashed the doors open. Seeing that the turbolift itself was several decks above her, Tahiri, who had deactivated her lightsaber and replaced it to her belt in quick succession, plunged down into the shaft. She then used the Force to slow her descent so that her fingers caught the ledge of the level where she knew the _Defender_'s hangar bay to be without dislocating them.

Tahiri used the Force again by blowing the turbolift shaft doors outward before flipping herself onto the deck of this level. She then broke into another run as she headed for the entrance of the Star Destroyer's hangar.

But meters from that entrance, Abeloth's Captain Jecki avatar teleported in front of Tahiri and flung a tentacle for the former Jedi's mouth. Tahiri fluidly dodged out of the appendage's way, leaped up so that her booted feet met the bulkhead to her right, and then bounded off of it so that her lightsaber went into the Jecki avatar's mouth.

When the first several centimeters of the lightsaber hit the back of the avatar's throat, it actually screamed in pain. Tahiri, of course, pressed on until she couldn't feel her blade give anymore way into the entity's innards; then she promptly pulled the lightsaber out and, with a brief flash of intuition, struck out so that it managed to perfectly cleave the avatar cleanly down the middle. Both parts of the unit of Abeloth's existence that had assimilated Captain Jecki vanished into thin air.

And that was when Tahiri heard two more screams from behind her. She swiftly pivoted around to find two more avatars who had just appeared reel in pain.

But that pain lasted for only a few seconds before both avatars looked back at her in hot rage. Knowing that now wouldn't be a good time to repeat what she had done to the Jecki avatar, Tahiri turned back and entered the _Defender_'s hangar bay where she dashed for the nearest X-wing.

She Force-leaped up to the closed canopy of the starfighter, only to find herself met by another avatar of Abeloth. However, before Tahiri even landed on the canopy itself, she threw her lightsaber out to the avatar's legs; and just as it was less than a meter from the legs, Tahiri put in a little bit of extra Force-strength behind the lightsaber's inertia.

The blade managed to knock the entity straight off of the canopy, where it fell to the hangar's deck with a fearful scream.

That was when Tahiri landed on the canopy and used the Force to open it up from the inside. She then dropped herself into the pilot seat, quickly started up the engines, and promptly activated the starfighter's laser-firing system to begin blasting away at the avatars of Abeloth that were now in front of her on the deck.

Then, once she got the X-wing off the deck, she rotated the fighter around so that she could fire upon all of the avatars that began lashing their tentacles out at her confiscated ship. While none of the shots managed to reduce any of the avatars into atoms or molecules, they did manage to blast them back as if they had been hit by massive solid objects; but that was all Tahiri needed to clear her way to rocket the X-wing out through the hangar bay's way to space.

Once there, however, she saw that there were now several other Galactic Alliance and even Imperial Remnant starfighters that were making the space around Coruscant into a battlefield. It was a confused mess at first glance, as it wasn't an all-out battle between the GA and the Remnant fighters; it was definitely more of a mixture between them, as Tahiri could sense that, in many of those starfighters on both sides, avatars of Abeloth were at the helm.

And even as the GA and Remnant ships piloted by Abeloth were battling the vessels manned by actual GA and Remnant pilots, Tahiri noticed that there were now Abeloth-possessed ships that were making their way down through Coruscant's atmosphere.

Just as she wasted no time in escaping the _Defender_, Tahiri wasted no time in heading through the battlefield to start blasting away at the ships piloted by Abeloth.


	59. Chapter 59

After Jacen established that the mysterious door of his last two visions was somewhere in the Chiloon Rift, Han thought that it would be a good idea to narrow their search parameters to somewhere much more specific in the nebula. Because of the Rift's notorious reputation for being densely crowded with asteroids rich with resources for governments like the Galactic Alliance and the Imperial Remnant, Han didn't want to go through the entire nebula, putting the _Millennium Falcon_ under so much risk of collision, looking for this door without a more concrete direction to take.

So, after consulting a few more starcharts and information graphs on the _Falcon_, the phenomenon that lay at the heart of the Rift caught Jacen's eye.

"The Bubble of the Lost?" Han asked. He, Jacen, Leia, Jaina, Allana, Krayt, and the three remaining Masters of the Jedi Order had been gathered around the _Falcon_'s dejarik table, which temporarily served as a holomap displaying this Bubble. Accompanying the map was some background text explaining what the phenomenon was.

"It says here that this Bubble is an area where many mining ships had been lost over the years," Jacen said as he scanned through the text. "Sometimes, the ships wouldn't be gone for too long. Other times, they wouldn't turn up again until centuries after they entered it. Naturally, the mining coalition in the Chiloon Rift declared this region of the nebula off limits."

"And you think this is where this door might be, Jacen?" Jaina asked.

He nodded. "It has to be. A phenomenon like this, located in the nebula where I saw the door, has to be tied to Abeloth somehow."

"Of course this is where it's gonna be," Han chimed in.

Everyone else at the table looked at him questioningly.

"An area of space inside a nebula fraught with asteroids that could destroy the _Falcon_ if I make so much as one wrong move piloting her?" Han retorted. "I believe it; if we're to kill an entity as powerful as Abeloth, whatever's gonna be there to kill her would have to be that difficult to get. I know that because my life is never so easy."

Kyp shrugged. "At least we have some idea of where to go."

Everyone else around the table more or less mirrored Han and Kyp's sentiments.

Han sighed once the consensus was reached. "All right, let's go."

Two days later, the _Falcon_ was well into the Chiloon Rift. And even in spite of Han's years of experience behind his beloved ship, he still felt like his nerves would wind up getting shot over the stress that he was putting himself and his legendary YT-1300 through.

"So, which do you think is more difficult to navigate?" Leia asked during one of the ship's several brief jumps through hyperspace. "This, the Maw, or the Kessel Run?"

"Don't make me choose," he replied with an exhausted tone.

Leia barely stifled a smile as Han dropped the _Falcon_ back into normal space.

However, even that note of levity (at least for Leia) was immediately overshadowed by a scream from Jacen back in the passenger cabin. After Han put the _Falcon_ on standby so that it merely hovered in the latest asteroid field into which it now found itself, both he and Leia stood up from their seats in the cockpit and headed back to see what was wrong with their son.

"Jacen, what is it?" Leia asked.

"It's Abeloth!" Jacen exclaimed. "She's... she's... she's making an attack on Coruscant! No, not just Coruscant! She's attacking Hapes, Bastion, so many other planets now! I've seen it through my connection to her! She's assimilating so many people!" When he paused, the look of horror on his face only deepened. "She's assimilated the Aing-Tii! She used their teleportation abilities to augment her own so that she could appear aboard the ships defending Coruscant and the other worlds!"

"From the sound of it, Abeloth seems to be making a final push for dominating the galaxy," Krayt observed. A tinge of worry touched even his voice. "She has finally accumulated enough power to do so."

But right before Krayt's words could sink in among everyone in the passenger cabin, Jacen froze in terror. "Oh, no," he whispered.

"What is it now?" Han asked.

"Abeloth is... she's here," he muttered.

Right then, the _Falcon_ shook from some kind of impact, jarring everyone in the passenger cabin from where they sat or stood.

Once Han regained his footing, he rushed back into the cockpit with Leia on his tail. When they resumed their seats, with Jacen and Krayt being the ones to stand at the cockpit's entrance to see what was going on, all four of them looked out through the forward viewport to find several ships taking position around the _Falcon_.

"We're being hailed," Leia said. She then opened a channel.

Before and between the pilot and copilot seats stood a scaled-down holographic representation of a woman familiar to both Han and Leia; and, had he still been conscious, she would have definitely been familiar to Luke as well.

"Callista?" Leia asked.

"Hello, Leia," the woman who appeared to be, and sounded like, Callista Ming said. "Hi, Han. How's Luke doing?"

Both elder Solos were hesitant in their response; combined with what Jacen said about Abeloth being here, Han and Leia's surprise at seeing this woman after so many years took them both aback for a moment.

"Um... he's in a coma, Callista," Han finally spoke up.

"Still," Callista asked. She shook her head in disappointment. "What a shame. However, I didn't come here to express my regrets about Luke's conditio."

"Oh, yeah, what did you come here to do?" Han asked suspiciously. "And how did you know that Luke was in a coma in the first place?"

"To answer your first question, Han, I came here to warn you and everyone else aboard your ship," Callista said evenly. "If you don't turn back now and leave the Chiloon Rift immediately, we will destroy the _Millennium Falcon_ and kill everyone aboard."

"Who's we?" Jacen asked.

Callista's attention shifted from Han and Leia to their son. "Ah, yes. Jacen Solo. To be honest, I forgot if I met you when you were little; so much of my attention in the days when I was with your uncle, I was focused mainly on my own inability to use the Force and on him. Nevertheless, I know quite a bit about you just from what I know from Abeloth. And in answer to your question, Jacen, when I say 'we,' I mean Abeloth and myself. And that, in turn, should answer your second question, Han; I knew that Luke was in a coma because of my connection to Abeloth."

"You're allied with Abeloth, Callista?" Leia asked with a betrayed tone. "Willingly? She hasn't even assimilated you?"

"Assimilated? Is that what you call it?" Callista asked. "Well, I suppose, in a sense, I have been. But unlike her other avatars, I'm still very much alive, Leia. That is a privilege that Abeloth has granted me, for keeping her company for so many years before she was freed. She cares about me, Leia, which is why she values my opinion. You should, too, because I'm trying to save your lives."

"Save our lives?" Jacen asked. "You think we can just turn around when Abeloth is causing so much death and destruction right now? You think we can just leave this nebula knowing that she'll just wind up assimilating everybody in this galaxy until she is every living being? You think we can just let any of that pass? Lady, I don't know who she is to you, but if you're an accomplice to Abeloth, I'm pretty sure you're not trying to save any of our lives."

Callista's eyebrows lifted. "I didn't realize you spoke for everyone aboard your father's ship, Jacen."

"On this matter, I can say he does," Han said. "Now you and Abeloth may have more ships on your side, Callista, but that's not gonna stop us from finding whatever it is that can kill her in this nebula. And if we have to die to do that, well... you know what, no."

"No?" Callista asked. "What do you mean no, Han?"

"I mean, no, as in, we don't have to die," Han elaborated.

"So you will turn around then?" Callista asked.

"Oh, hell no on that, too," Han said.

Callista smirked. "Are you really so arrogant, Han, that you believe yourself to be such a capable pilot that you can outmaneuver all of these ships and all of these asteroids without getting your ship destroyed?"

"In a straight-up fight?" Han asked. He tilted his head. "Probably not. But with a little advantage..."

He trailed off as he promptly activated the _Falcon_'s belly turret and began firing upon all of the asteroids around him and the ships piloted by Abeloth. At the same time, Leia terminated the communication with Callista.

"Everyone, form a Force-shield around this ship now!" Han exclaimed to everyone in the passenger cabin.

There was only a brief moment of confusion among everyone who wasn't Leia, Jacen, or Krayt; however, when all of the Force-sensitives sensed the danger of the rapidly approaching debris of asteroids and rocks heading straight for the _Falcon_, they all instantly combined their Force-talents and formed an invisible shield around the ship. Even Danni, the most inexperienced Force-sensitive aboard, lent her efforts to the formation of the barrier.

The Force Nullifier in one of the _Falcon_'s storage lockers didn't even hinder the Force-sensitives' efforts; while a ten-meter pocket was formed around it, it otherwise didn't do anything to the shield.

And as the rocky debris bounced off the Force-shield, the ships piloted by Abeloth scurried around in a mad panic in the asteroid field. Evidently, Abeloth didn't get the same idea to form a shield around any of her own ships, as they soon ended up dwindling in numbers as their electrically-generated energy shields failed to stop any of the destroyed asteroids from penetrating their hulls and destroying them.

A minute of literal rocky chaos followed after Han had fired upon the asteroids before the last of Abeloth's ships was destroyed. The minute after that, the asteroid shower that was artificially caused by the _Falcon_'s belly turret had ceased.

But before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, Callista had suddenly dropped from the dorsal quad cannon and appeared in the passenger cabin, much to the shock of everyone there. Naturally, everyone who had a lightsaber had it in hand and active.

"Don't you understand?!" Callista roared as her voice took on a tenor that sounded like multiple people were speaking through her mouth. Han, Leia, Jacen, and Krayt soon joined everyone else in the cabin, with the latter three all brandishing their lightsabers while Han aimed his blaster at Callista.

As all attention was leveled upon her, Callista continued speaking as her eyes became well-like pits displaying small points of light and her mouth widened to show extremely sharpened teeth.

"We are here to bring unity to this galaxy!" Callista-Abeloth declared. "Not annihilation! Peace is our goal! Not some pathetic union between disparate people and organizations that would crumble in a matter of years because of differing views and ideologies! Nor do we wish to impose our wills upon people who have minds of their own! Under one mind, under one body, shared by so many, can we bring true, everlasting stability to this galaxy!"

"If you want peace, Abeloth," Jacen said, "then go home. You don't have to place the well-being of the galaxy on your shoulders. Leave that to us mortals; we may not always get it right, but we try." He then looked over at Krayt. "Even the worst of us try."

There was a moment of silence in the passenger cabin; only the combined hums of every lightsaber in the passenger cabin could be heard.

That silence soon came to an end as Callista-Abeloth started to giggle. Then that giggle turned into a continuous chuckle. Then that chuckle turned into an extended guffaw.

"Oh, Jacen," Callista-Abeloth said as her arms turned into tentacles. "What was it that Master Yoda said to your uncle? Do or do not; there is no try. I'm not here to try; I'm here to DO!"

She then lashed out with her tentacles at Jacen, only for him to soar over them in an arc that would take him to Callista-Abeloth.

But on a backward swipe, one of Callista-Abeloth's tentacles knocked Jacen out of the air, and he collided to his right against one of the _Falcon_'s bulkheads before collapsing to the deck.

However, before she could press her attack, the nearest Jedi decided to slash at Callista-Abeloth with their lightsabers. But in lieu of doing any actual damage to her, they only seemed to press in on her.

Still, they kept the entity at bay as Jacen picked himself up. He was about to join in on the small crowd batting away at Callista-Abeloth when he suddenly had an epiphany.

Quickly, he closed his eyes and immersed himself in the connection that he had with Abeloth. As he looked in among all of the viewpoints that the entity had with all of her current avatars, Jacen saw something that stood out among all of them.

When he opened his eyes again, he looked over at the Sith Master and said, "Hey, Krayt! Wanna teleport again?"

Krayt only nodded and, without hesitation, joined Jacen in rushing toward the Jedi who were keeping Callista-Abeloth at bay.

Then, as if on cue, she managed to muster just enough power to swipe out among the small crowd with one big tentacle attack. But Jacen and Krayt both leaped over the fallen Jedi, and just as that happened, they grabbed each other's free hand.

Less than a second later, they fell upon Callista-Abeloth, tackling her to the deck.

Then Jacen closed his eyes, pressed two of his fingers from his lightsaber-wielding hand for one of Callista-Abeloth's tentacles, and commenced the Aing-Tii teleportation method.

But just as Jacen and Krayt disappeared, Callista-Abeloth remained.

"No!" she screamed as she sat up rapidly.

She then growled before she, too, teleported away.

All was silent in the passenger cabin before Han asked, "What the hell just happened?"

"I don't know," Leia said. "But I think we need to resume course for that Bubble of the Lost."

"But with Jacen gone-"

"Han, wherever he and Krayt are now," Leia insisted, "we have to trust that they're okay; or at least that Jacen is. We can't let that slow us down now; if we have any chance of stopping Abeloth, as Jacen said, we have to find whatever's at the Bubble that may kill her."

"I hope you're right, Leia," Han said as he joined his wife back in the cockpit.

Moments later, the _Falcon_ plunged back into hyperspace.


	60. Chapter 60

When he opened his eyes again, Jacen found himself and Krayt in a white void; they were still sprawled on what could be called a ground in this realm, but Callista-Abeloth wasn't beneath them now. Their lightsabers weren't even in hand, nor were they anywhere else on their persons.

As Krayt himself gave himself a moment to take in his surroundings and push himself up to his feet, he looked at Jacen, who had also stood up, in askance.

"Why did the Callista avatar not come here with us?" Krayt asked.

"Because I didn't take her with us," Jacen explained.

The confusion on Krayt's face only deepened. "But... you had a grip on her...?"

Jacen shook his head. "That was just a little setup."

"Setup? Setup for what?"

"Right before I teleported us here," Jacen elaborated, "I saw this place in my connection with Abeloth. I'd seen it before when I looked through her eyes, but... for some reason, it wasn't as pronounced. But when we were just fighting her, this realm became more noticeable, and I... just had this impulse that we should be here."

Jacen looked around for a moment before returning his attention to the Sith Master. "Krayt... is this the realm you mentioned before? The one you called beyond shadows?"

"It is," Krayt confirmed. "And in case you were wondering, our lightsabers did not follow us into this realm because, while they may be part of us in the real world, they are not part of us in this plane; our lightsabers are merely tools that would not be recognized beyond shadows. If and when we do return to the physical plane, we should have them back in hand; believe me, I tried this before, and it worked."

"I see," Jacen said. "But that's assuming that we Mind-Walked."

"We have to assume that our lightsabers will be back in hand when we return nevertheless," Krayt stated.

"Okay. But if our lightsabers didn't follow us here, why did our clothes do so?"

Krayt waved that observation away. "Only an illusion to preserve one's sense of modesty. Had neither of us cared, we might as well both be naked right now."

"I see," Jacen said skeptically. "Well, I'm glad I don't have to see you in the nude."

Krayt ignored him. "You did not quite explain how you were able to get us here; do so now."

"Again, it was my connection to Abeloth," Jacen said. "I just needed some solid contact with her. Combine that with my ability to see through her eyes, and I was able to bring us here. Honestly, I thought her Callista avatar would join us; apparently, that's not the case."

"This does not make any sense," Krayt said.

"Well, I'm sorry, I don't know how else to explain this."

Krayt sighed. "Very well. But now that we are here, what are we to do?"

"You said that if we were here, you could get my uncle out of his coma," Jacen said.

"It is a possibility," Krayt said. Then his eyes widened, as if in realization of something. "But..."

"What is it?"

"You brought us here, Solo," Krayt pointed out with some worry. "To the realm beyond shadows. I told you that if I came here without proper equipment to keep me alive for when I return to the physical plane, I could die."

"Now, wait a minute," Jacen said, "you said that would happen if you were Mind-Walking, if I remember correctly. We're not Mind-Walking, Krayt; I brought us here without having to do that. I think we're both safe. Well, as safe as we can be with Abeloth running around."

Krayt paused. "Very well. I suppose now that we are here, we must continue with our mission to eliminate Abeloth. I can only trust in the idea that I will return to the physical plane still as powerful as I was before I left it. Let us find your uncle then; follow me."

As Krayt led the way, Jacen soon began seeing various faces off to the sides of the path upon which he and the Sith Master walked.

"These are the faces of so many Force-sensitives since time immemorial," Krayt explained without looking back at Jacen. "Not just Jedi and Sith, mind you, but of other Force-sects as well."

Among them was Vergere; her eyes closed and resting with her hands over her chest, as if she were an embalmed corpse at a wake. As Jacen looked down upon the Fosh with a sad smile, Krayt merely sneered at her in contempt; the Jedi decided that now was no time to defend whatever honor Vergere may or may not have had.

As they proceeded further, Jacen eventually found four spots where there were no faces at all.

"Why are there these gaps?" Jacen asked.

Krayt stopped and looked back at Jacen. "Gaps, you say?"

Jacen then pointed at the places beside them where he couldn't see any faces.

"Ah," Krayt said. "It appears that your inability to sense your direct family members extends even here." He then pointed at one gap. "There is your grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, better known to the galaxy as Darth Vader, of course." He pointed to another gap. "There is your younger brother, Anakin Solo." Yet another gap was indicated, and at this one, Krayt smirked. "That one is for your clone, the man who took the name Darth Caedus."

"You said family members," Jacen said. "I wouldn't call Caedus a member of my family, even if he had my DNA."

"I said direct family members," Krayt pointed out. "Because he is your clone, he is related to you, therefore he is part of your biological family."

"Which is why I can see Aunt Mara there," Jacen said. "I guess marrying into a family doesn't count, huh?" There was some disdain in his voice; the idea that Caedus was more related to him than Aunt Mara was because of the simple fact that he was his clone disgusted Jacen.

"No, it does not," Krayt said evenly. He then pointed to the last gap that Jacen saw. "And there is your uncle, Luke Skywalker, laying there as if he were dead." The Sith Master then bent down to the place where Jacen couldn't see his uncle and said, "I will attempt to see if I can raise him."

Krayt then said, "Luke Skywalker."

A moment passed before the Sith looked back at Jacen. "It did not work."

"Please tell me your efforts aren't just gonna stop there," Jacen intoned.

"Of course they will not," Krayt replied. He then looked back down into the gap, closed his eyes, raised his arms, and began muttering some ancient Sith chant that Jacen knew nothing about.

But just as Jacen decided that, if he was going to wait he might as well sit down, he felt some kind of quake occur somewhere behind him. He pivoted around to see where it might have come from.

While he couldn't see it yet, he heard something. Something was coming, as indicated by the approach of wet-sounding footsteps drawing nearer at a rapid rate.

Then some kind of shadowy form took place in the distance. The form soon grew in definition, and features like tentacles came into view.

Not much longer, Abeloth, absent the form of any avatar, appeared before Jacen, snarling viciously and with her tentacles swinging at him.

In that moment, Jacen forgot that he didn't have his uncle's lightsaber on him; as a result, he was smacked backward by the tentacle so that he landed only a meter from Krayt's crouched form.

But just as Krayt's attention on raising Luke was broken when he noticed Jacen land near him, both of their sights fell on Abeloth as she reeled in pain in the distance. She grasped at the tentacle that she used to smack Jacen with, which was now smoking and burning as if it had been human flesh dipped in a highly corrosive acid.

"What happened?" Krayt asked. "What did you do?"

"Nothing, I..." Jacen trailed off as a realization struck him as effectively as Abeloth's last attack. "She can't hurt me here without hurting herself; it's the same reason that she can't assimilate me." He then pushed himself to his feet just as Abeloth's tentacle stopped burning and smoking.

"Get back to raising my uncle from his coma," Jacen told Krayt quickly. "I'll deal with Abeloth."

Krayt turned back and resumed his Sith chant as Jacen walked at a brisk pace to meet Abeloth.

"You may be anathema to me, especially in this realm, Solo," the entity said as she matched his pace, "but that doesn't mean I still can't hurt you, too."

Abeloth then screeched as she flung a tentacle out for Jacen, as if preparing herself for the pain that contact with him would bring. And, indeed, the subsequent pain was bad, but it was even more agonizing for her than she realized because Jacen had pivoted out of the way and grabbed both of his hands upon the tentacle.

As Abeloth roared in pain, the tentacle that Jacen held onto suddenly lifted into the air, carrying him with it. But even as the tentacle thrashed about, desperately trying to dislodge the Jedi from it, Jacen held on with all of his might; that became incrementally easier, as his hands were managing to burn through the fibers of the flesh of Abeloth's tentacle.

Soon, Abeloth used her other tentacle to finally smack Jacen off of the one that he had been holding onto, and he fell to one of the places where he couldn't see any faces.

Even before he plunged into it, he remembered right then that this was where his clone rested.

And right when he landed in the "pool" where Darth Caedus was, the whiteness around Jacen quickly started to turn into an opaque black. Jacen started to panic, as he was unable to swim his way out of this metaphysical pool, and a feeling of suffocation started to overwhelm him, as if he were now drowning.

Then, just as the darkness completed itself around Jacen, he saw bright orange eyes looking directly at him.

_Caedus_, he knew. Even though he shouldn't be able to sense him beyond shadows, Jacen was now beginning to be aware of his presence here.

But right before any more details could be resolved around Caedus, a hand plunged itself into the pool to grab Jacen's shoulder. He was yanked back out onto the path that he and Krayt (who had pulled him to the surface) had both walked upon.

Jacen picked himself up and saw that Abeloth was now only lashing one slightly burned tentacle out for both him and Krayt. The Jedi saw that Abeloth's other tentacle had been truncated; it appeared as if his grip on that appendage must have burned it off, Jacen thought with an iota of satisfaction.

Still, he couldn't revel even in that small bit of contentedness as he had to pick himself back up and retreat with Krayt as Abeloth gave chase to them.

"Did you get my uncle out of his coma?" Jacen asked the Sith as they ran. "Because, remember, I can't detect-"

"I was unable to do so!" Krayt interrupted. "Abeloth came after me too quickly to allow me to complete-"

He wasn't even able to finish that sentence as both he and Jacen were tripped by Abeloth's remaining tentacle. They both ended up sprawled upon the path that separated them from what Jacen now considered "ghost pools."

Jacen and Krayt then rolled themselves onto their backs and looked up as Abeloth began lashing her tentacle down upon them. The Jedi and Sith rolled to and fro to avoid being attacked by the appendage without slipping into any of the ghost pools, but the rapidity of Abeloth's attacks only grew, making it harder for either Force-sensitive to keep from slipping into either of the pools at their sides.

But just as Abeloth was about to make another lash, and just as Jacen thought that he would be rolled into a pool containing the spirit of some dead Sith-looking Zabrak, the entity suddenly stumbled forward, as if she had been thrown off-balance.

Abeloth swiftly turned around and was once again brought a step back to Jacen and Krayt, as if something just hit her. It happened again, and again, and again.

"Stop it! Stop it, my king!" Abeloth screeched. "I am here for you! Just as you are here for me!"

When the attacks stopped, Jacen heard Krayt gasp. When he looked away from Abeloth to the Sith Master, the latter said, "I do not believe it."

"What? What is it?" Jacen asked.

"It is your uncle," Krayt muttered. "He has returned."

Jacen's jaw dropped as he looked back to see past Abeloth; only he couldn't see anyone ahead of the entity.

At least not for a few seconds. Then Jacen started to see some kind of transparent form of somebody who looked vaguely like Luke Skywalker, what he was saying sounded muted, as if his the visual and audio around him matched in quality to Jacen's perceptions.

"I... I think... I can see him again," Jacen whispered to no one in particular.

"Good," a familiar female voice said from behind him.

Jacen turned back and saw Vergere standing before him now. He looked back at the pool where she was, only to find it vacant, before looking back at her.

"I see that some of my effects on you have been affected," the dead Fosh said. "No doubt when you fell into that pool that contained your clone; now, just as you may be able to sense your relatives in a very distant way, Jacen, you would now be partially affected by the Force Nullifier when you return to the physical plane."

"But... wouldn't that also mean...?" Jacen trailed off as a realization struck him.

"Yes, Jacen, you're now susceptible to Abeloth assimilating you," Vergere confirmed. "Which also means that you can't harm her merely by touching her. But, at this point, I think it's safe to say that the point of your immunity to the Force Nullifier, and everything associated with it, has come to an end, Jacen. I will now nullify so that all you need at this point on... is the Dagger of Mortis."

She then lifted a finger to Jacen's head, and when she touched him, a bright white light encompassed even the whiteness of the world around him.

When he came back to the realm beyond shadows, he saw Vergere once again laying in her ghost pool.

And just as Jacen saw the Fosh back in her place in the afterlife, he heard his uncle's voice from behind.

He looked back and saw Luke calmly say to Abeloth, "So I ask you, Abeloth, as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, to please cease the pursuit of your goal to become all life in the galaxy. If you do not, I have no choice but to destroy you; and I do not want to do that."

Abeloth snarled. "Your nephew couldn't convince me of that. You won't either, _Grand Master_ Skywalker!" She then lashed out at him with her tentacle.

Luke dodged it as he began running toward her, and Jacen and Krayt soon joined in as they rushed in from behind.

In moments, all three mortal Force-sensitives tackled Abeloth upon the path that separated them from the ghost pools and they each used their fists and legs to strike down upon the entity with Force-assisted strength. Abeloth merely screeched in pain as she began to get smaller and smaller in size, as the combined power of these three Force-sensitives was no match even for her, especially when Jacen had already weakened her by taking away one of her tentacles.

When Abeloth finally stopped screeching, all three men backed away from her and watched as she started to both shrink and sink naturally into the "ground" of the path before them.

But even as she decreased in size and submerged herself into the path, Abeloth giggled.

"I am but one form, you fools," she declared, her voice becoming fainter as she was disappearing. "Your defeat of me here will not deter all of my other avatars; and in the end, I _will_ win."

"Not if we get the Dagger of Mortis first," Jacen said.

Right before she fully disappeared beneath them, Abeloth screeched in horror at what Jacen said. Then her form in this plane was no more.

"Uncle Luke," Jacen said with a nod.

"Jacen," Luke replied with a reciprocating nod.

"I am surprised," Krayt chimed in. "I did not think that I had completed the ancient Sith chant that would undo Garis Boric's technique upon you."

"You didn't have to complete it," Luke said, his voice tinged with some disdain; obviously, Kyle Katarn's death must still be fresh in his mind. "You gave me all I needed to reemerge."

Krayt nodded. "In that case, we are done here. Solo, if you will." He then offered a hand.

Jacen took it, albeit with some hesitation. He then grabbed his other hand to his uncle's natural one and closed his eyes.

When he reopened them, both he and Krayt reappeared in the _Millennium Falcon_'s passenger cabin, much to the surprise of everyone there.

"You feel all right?" Jacen asked Krayt. "Feel drained at all?"

The Sith shook his head. "I feel fine."

Jacen tilted his head. "You're welcome," he said sardonically.

Then there were some pounding sounds coming from the hoversled with the opaque transparisteel cover that held Luke Skywalker. Tekli quickly opened it up.

And from it, Luke sat up from it, moving his arms and legs in a way that would stimulate blood-flow again after so much time in disuse.

"Uncle Luke!" Jaina called.

"Dad!" Ben called.

The two of them then ran to their uncle and father respectively and hugged him; when Han and Leia left the _Falcon_'s cockpit, they joined Jaina and Ben in hugging Luke, too.

Naturally, Jacen ended up hugging his uncle among his crowded family.

"Jacen!" Jaina exclaimed. "We can sense you through the Force again!"

"I know," Jacen said with tears in his eyes. Then the hugging resumed with even more intensity.

Soon, however, what became a joyful reunion turned serious when Luke ultimately brought the group hug to an end and he asked his brother-in-law, "Han, where are we?"

"We're in the Chiloon Rift, Luke," Han explained. "We're going to get something from its center, the Bubble of the Lost, that might help defeat Abeloth. Abeloth is-"

"I know who she is," Luke said. "When I was in my coma, I was distantly aware of the events in the galaxy that were happening; Abeloth was kinda hard to miss." He looked to his nephew. "Jacen, you said something about the Dagger of Mortis?"

Jacen nodded. "That's what Vergere told me."

"Han, how far are we from the Bubble of the Lost?"

"Only a few parsecs now," Han answered. "One more hyperspace jump and we should be there."

"Then let's get on it," Luke said as he stood up and out of the hoversled. "If Abeloth lives much sooner, there won't be much of a galaxy left for us to save."


	61. Chapter 61

The _Millennium Falcon_'s recent encounter with Abeloth's avatars in the Chiloon Rift had left her and Callista without any ships from which they could teleport to. However, by using their hive-minded connection to all of the other avatars that Abeloth currently had in the galaxy, she and Callista managed to use that connection as a metaphysical Force-conduit upon which they traveled. Thus, Abeloth and Callista, as a joined entity, ended up light-years outside the Rift as they teleported aboard the bridge of the Galactic Alliance Star Destroyer _Defender_ in orbit over Coruscant.

By this point, many GA and Imperial Remnant Star Destroyers and starfighters were engaged in combat over Coruscant as well as along the planet's surface. Explosions on the planet could be seen even from orbit as Alliance defenders tried in vain to repel the inevitability of Abeloth's conquest of the galaxy.

But since that victory was inevitable, Abeloth thought with Callista, there was no reason why it couldn't wait a little longer. In fact, the reason that they had to leave Coruscant and all the other worlds that Abeloth was currently occupying or invading was to ensure that inevitability.

Without having to say a word to any of her avatars, all of them—not just on Coruscant, but everywhere that Abeloth was right now—stopped what they were doing, even if they were pilots in the middle of a dogfight with an enemy. And when they did that, those avatars that weren't outright destroyed by their enemies turned away from their occupied territories and, within minutes, jumped into hyperspace.

Their destination: the Chiloon Rift.

There was only so much that the Force-sensitives aboard the _Millennium Falcon_ could do to protect that ship.

. . .

"Krayt and I were gone for that long?" Jacen asked Danni. At her nod, he sighed in astonishment. "Two hours, I can't believe it. It didn't even feel that long. Then again, I guess I lost track of time when we were beyond shadows; no wonder I was able to teleport so soon after I got Krayt and myself there."

"Time works differently beyond shadows, Solo," Krayt said from elsewhere in the passenger cabin. "And not always consistently. We could have been there for as little time as a few seconds to half a day."

"I'll remember to keep that in mind the next time I have to go in there," Jacen said sardonically.

"Everyone, we're here," Han called from the cockpit.

Luke and Jacen stood up from their positions in the cabin and went to the cockpit's threshold to see their destination; Krayt followed suit, but could only see the _Falcon_'s forward viewport over Jacen's shoulder.

The YT-1300 finally dropped out into the Bubble of the Lost. And the first thing that everyone in or at the cockpit could see out through the forward viewport was a large monolith that appeared to stand as still in space as if it were a planet.

"Doesn't look much like a door to me," Han commented dryly.

"No, but..." Jacen trailed off as he allowed himself to immerse his Force-senses much more deeply into feeling out the monolith. "I get the same sense from it as I had in my visions on Korriban and Qiilura."

"You said that this Force Nullifier might act as a key to accessing that monolith, Jacen?" Luke asked. While he may have been peripherally aware of what was going on in the galaxy while he was in his coma, some of the finer details, like Jacen's aforementioned visions, still had to be relayed to him.

Jacen nodded. "I think it will be."

"Then put on a vac suit, Jacen," Han said. "I'll get you as close to that thing as I can."

As Jacen went to get a vac suit from the _Falcon_'s cargo bay and the Force Nullifier from one of the ship's storage lockers, Han piloted the YT-1300 toward the monolith with no trouble.

Once the ship had sidled up to within a few dozen meters from the monolith and had been parked so that its airlock was facing it, Jacen had put on a vac suit and had the Nullifier in his hand.

Now that it was affecting him the way that it did to other Force-sensitives, he was reminded of his time without the Force when he was being tortured by Vergere and the Yuuzhan Vong. Mixed feelings arose from that time that Jacen decided to shut out for now; he had a mission to complete, and the sooner he finished it, the sooner he would be able to reclaim his sense of the Force once the Nullifier was no longer needed.

When Jacen entered the airlock, he made sure that the door separating the inside of the _Falcon_ from space was secured shut. After the airlock was depressurized, he opened the outer door and allowed himself to float as freely as he could toward the monolith; with a safety tether attached to his vac suit's waist, there was only so far he could go.

"Talk to us, Jacen," Han said over his son's helmet comm. "You see any sign of that Nullifier-shaped incision on the monolith yet?"

"No, not yet, Dad," Jacen said once he finally landed on all fours on the monolith. "Obviously, I'll let you know when I do. Just keep the _Falcon_ moving to where I need to go; you can see me, right?"

"Yeah, we can see you," Han assured him. "Where do you need us to go right now?"

"Up, at a very steady rate," Jacen said. "When I say stop, stop."

"Gotcha," Han replied as he brought the ship up incrementally. "How long do you think this search is gonna last, Jacen?"

"As long as it needs to, Dad," Jacen said. "But, hopefully, not long."

"Right," Han said.

Silence then dominated the search for the next several minutes as Jacen closely scanned the monolith's surface, looking for any signs of a hole in which the Force Nullifier could fit into. So far, the entire surface was nothing but smooth stone, with few to no imperfections in it.

Whoever made this monolith, Jacen thought, had to be among the most advanced races in this galaxy, if not _the_ most advanced race in the galaxy.

But, finally, after what felt like forever, Jacen said, "Dad, stop!"

The _Falcon_ came to a dead halt as Jacen looked upon the inches-deep hole that he caught sight of.

"Did you find it, Jacen?" Han asked.

Jacen didn't answer immediately; instead, he looked between the incision and the Nullifier before he placed the latter over the former.

"Jacen?" Han's voice asked.

But before Jacen had a chance to respond, the Nullifer, now that it was in the hole, suddenly began turning clockwise of its own accord, freed of the Jedi's grasp.

"I think I found it, Dad," Jacen answered as the medallion turned in place.

"Well, now what?" Han asked.

Jacen only said, "Wait."

Once the medallion completed a full rotation, which occurred within twelve seconds, a large crack appeared from both above and beyond the incision.

And that crack only widened ever further until it ran down the middle of the entire monolith.

When the crack had finally reached both the top and bottom of the monolith, a swirl of colors appeared from inside the divide.

"Jacen, what's happening?" Han asked.

Jacen never had a chance to answer, as the swirling colors then bled out into space and enfolded him like a blanket. The space around him started to disappear and then...

He stood in a dark room. He was absent his vac suit, but the Force Nullifier was still in his hand.

Except this time, Jacen didn't feel empty with it. Instead, an odd sense of calm came over him even before another swirl of lights lit up before him. This new swirl soon coalesced into a shape; that shape soon became clear as the swirl died away, leaving in its place the very object that Jacen came for.

The Dagger of Mortis.

Carefully, he walked toward it. But just as he reached for it with the hand that wasn't carrying the Nullifier, he felt a sharp jolt run through him. Jacen stepped back from it a few steps before giving a disgusted look at the medallion in his hand.

He was about to throw it away when a thought occurred to him; he looked at it again for a moment. Then he approached the Dagger once more and reached out for it again; only this time, he used the hand that was holding the Nullifier.

No sharp jolt ran through him; instead, the Nullifier promptly left his grasp, as if it were a metallic object attracted to the magnet that was the Dagger.

And as soon as the medallion attached itself to the Dagger's blade, electricity started to form around the combined objects. At first, they were only a few small bolts; then they gradually grew in intensity before a great big bolt struck the Dagger-Nullifier combination.

A flash of white light was accompanied by thunder, overwhelming Jacen's senses, before he was brought back to the physical plane, in his vac suit again, with a sword in hand.

Not a lightsaber, but a sword.

"Jacen, where's the Nullifier?" Han asked over his son's helmet comm.

"What?" Jacen asked in astonishment.

"I just asked where's the Force Nullifier?" Han repeated.

"I... I... I think I still have it, Dad," Jacen said.

"No, you don't, you have a sword," Han pointed out.

"Yes, I have a sword, but I think the Nullifier is a part of it somehow," Jacen said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Dad... whatever this is... this will finally end Abeloth for good."


	62. Chapter 62

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Jacen?" Luke asked. "Allowing Abeloth to come to us?"

"You're the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, Uncle Luke," Jacen pointed out. "Not me. You could easily countermand by suggestion. I may argue for it, but in the end, it's your choice."

"You're correct. I could countermand you. But, actually, I agree with your stance; I just wanted to make sure that you were sure of this idea."

"Thanks," Jacen said. "I'm quite sure of the idea." He then hefted the Dagger-Nullifier sword, which he took to calling the Abeloth Slayer, in both hands. "Meeting her in some system in this nebula that we aren't familiar with would put us both on an equal playing field. But by letting her come to us here, a system that we're at least partially familiar with, we can better plan our strategy."

"What strategy do you have in mind, Solo?" Darth Krayt asked.

"While I may not have my connection to Abeloth anymore," Jacen explained, "I think I know her well enough at this point to deduce that she'll come to us to try to kill us all. And probably with a full force, at that."

"What do you mean by a full force, Jacen?" Kyp asked.

Jacen looked at the Jedi Master. "I mean she's gonna be sending everything she's got after us."

"Everything she's got?" Han asked. "You mean... _all_ of her avatars and the forces she's accumulated? I mean, based on what you've told us, she's gotta have, like, half the Galactic Alliance and Imperial Remnant forces at her side by now!"

"I know," Jacen said. "But all I have to do is teleport aboard one of those ships, slash any one of her avatars, and then that'll be the end of her."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there, Jacen," Kyp said. "How do you even know that'll be the case?"

Just as Jacen opened his mouth to respond, he just as promptly closed it. Then he said, "Honestly, Kyp, I was kinda just hoping that would happen."

Everyone looked at Jacen in askance.

He merely shrugged before he spoke again. "Look, if it turns out that I have to kill a specific avatar, one that might turn out to be the lynchpin to ending Abeloth's whole existence, then so be it. All I know is that I feel through the Force that this sword is what will end her."

Silence dominated the _Millennium Falcon'_s passenger cabin again before Kyp said, "Well... we've come this far, haven't we? Jacen got a special sword, and if he says it's what'll put an end to Abeloth's reign of terror over the galaxy, I'm willin' to give him a chance."

Soon, everyone else in the passenger cabin nodded in agreement in a sequential manner. Once Luke was the last one to agree, Jacen said, "Then let's get ready."

The battle plan was surprisingly simple; since all they had was the _Falcon_, all Han had to do was fly among the asteroids in the system and use them to his advantage against the Star Destroyers and fighters that Abeloth would be sending their way.

Jacen, meanwhile, would concentrate on teleporting himself to one of the Destroyers and using the Abeloth Slayer on at least one random avatar aboard. If that didn't work and that still left the other avatars alive, then he knew that he was going to have to find some lead avatar and hope that he had transported aboard the correct capital ship to find it.

Otherwise, he would have half an hour before he could teleport again to find that lead avatar. So unless he found another ship, like a starfighter in that Destroyer's hangar bay, he would be stuck.

Hours passed as everyone aboard the _Falcon_ waited for Abeloth to finally arrive. And when she did, with every ship that she had in the galaxy, everyone who could catch a glimpse of it even from as far back as the rear of the passenger cabin were both amazed and horrified that there were at least over two dozen capital ships under her command.

What news the _Falcon_'s passengers did receive while waiting here, garbled though their datapads' connections to the HoloNet might have been in the Chiloon Rift, explained that Abeloth had transferred all of her avatars into those Destroyers from various other vessels, such as, for example, the Hapan Battle Dragons that she took control of. As a result, all of those other ships were simply left abandoned throughout the galaxy while Abeloth had control of these two dozen warships. Jacen had estimated, while they were waiting for her when they all received this news, that Abeloth must have realized sometime during her journey that she couldn't risk so many ships being destroyed from the Rift's asteroids, even with her perfect control of the capital vessels; thus, she decided to transfer all of her avatars here so that they could all be present to witness the _Falcon_'s destruction and, by extension, Jacen's death, thereby eliminating the last true threat to her ancient existence.

So now, here all of Abeloth was, ready to destroy the ship that carried the only thing that could truly threaten her existence.

"I'm getting ready to put the _Falcon_ into evasive-" Han started to say.

"Han," Leia interrupted. "We're being hailed."

Han paused, but then nodded. Leia then opened a channel.

Once again, a scaled-down holographic representation of Callista appeared before and between the _Falcon_'s pilot and copilot seats.

"_Millennium Falcon_," Callista said, "I'm contacting you again to ask that you reconsider what you intend to do from this point on. While I'm somewhat fascinated that you managed to somehow negate the time-bending that is known in this system, I don't think it's going to help you."

Han and Leia looked at Callista in confusion. "Time-bending? What are you talking about?" Han asked.

"With the Force Nullifier here, even when it's combined with the Dagger of Mortis into this sword," Jacen explained, "it somehow made the time-bending properties of the Bubble of the Lost be rendered moot. I know, I can feel its influence now."

"Jacen," Callista said with some contempt. "So you found the Dagger of Mortis, huh? You will not use it; I can only hope that you will take the easy way out of this."

"Think again," Jacen replied evenly.

"How sad. But before Abeloth and I decide that your lives truly are forfeit, I must first speak with your uncle." Callista then looked to Luke standing next to Jacen at the cockpit's threshold. "Hello, Luke. Nice to see you again after all these years; it's also nice to see you out of your coma... even if Abeloth didn't appreciate what you did to her beyond shadows."

"I know that you've been helping Abeloth, Callista," Luke said. "But this isn't the way to help the galaxy."

"Luke, please, understand, this is the best that I could do," Callista replied with a mournful expression. "If Abeloth had her way... there'd be nothing left. At least life would continue to go on."

"Not true life, Callista," Luke said. "I don't know what Abeloth has done to your mind, but I can see that you're not yourself; the Callista I knew wouldn't condone this genocide even if she thought that it was the lesser of two evils. Abeloth helped you regain the Force, didn't she? That's why you're helping her."

Callista was silent for a moment before she responded. "What Abeloth did for me is none of your business, Luke. Now, please, give this up; you only delay the inevitable. Abeloth will be all that is in this galaxy, and it will be better off for it. The everlasting peace that would come for this will span until the end of time! Can't you see that, Luke? No more conflict, no more death, no more wars among the stars!"

"I'm sorry, Callista," Luke said. "I don't want to believe that you're not beyond hope. But I sense no conflict within you on this matter; if you have to die, it will hurt me. If you truly care anymore, Callista, you will stop helping Abeloth."

Tears started to form in Callista's eyes. "Oh, Luke... I can't." She then terminated the connection.

"They're powering weapons!" Han announced. "Taking us into evasive maneuvers!"

As the first shots were fired from Abeloth's fleet of Star Destroyers, the _Falcon_ was brought about to starboard and then she rocketed for the nearest asteroid to hide behind.

The final battle with Abeloth had begun.


	63. Chapter 63

The first salvo of turbolaser fire from Abeloth's Star Destroyer fleet managed to blast away at many asteroids around the _Millennium Falcon_ even as the artificial projectiles tried their best to blow the legendary YT-1300 out of the sky. As a result, a meteor shower started to blanket the neutralized Bubble of the Lost with rocky debris flying every which way in the system.

Where the _Falcon_'s deliberate tactic to do this in her previous encounter with a fleet of Abeloth's ships had managed to destroy those vessels, this desperate attempt from the hive-minded entity to annihilate one tiny freighter did almost nothing to the fortified shields of her Star Destroyers. Thus, she was able to either stand or sit back, depending on the current position of any given avatar in the Destroyers, in some form of composure while the _Falcon_ ended up being bombarded by the meteor shower.

Even after Han piloted his beloved vessel to their original destination of that one particular asteroid, it did almost nothing to protect them from the shower. In fact, the asteroid from which he tried to use as cover for his ship ended up being shredded by the combination of the Star Destroyers' fire and the hail of asteroid debris.

If it hadn't been for nearly all of the Force-sensitives aboard the _Falcon_ using their abilities to strengthen the ship's strained energy shields, the ancient freighter probably would have been destroyed by now.

As the YT-1300 was violently jostled around here and there, rocking everyone aboard the ship in place, Jacen actually had the nerve to scream, "Come on, Dad! Find us a safe place in this system! I can't concentrate on teleporting aboard any of Abeloth's Star Destroyers!"

"Oh, gimme a break, Jacen, I'm tryin' not to get us all killed!" Han exclaimed without taking anymore concentration from piloting the _Falcon_.

He then threw the ship into a hard dive to port to avoid collision with an asteroid roughly half the size of the first Death Star, only for the YT to end up plowing through a rocky fragment twice the size of itself. For a moment after that, Han lost control of the ship and she took a hit to the belly by a boulder-sized piece of debris. He managed to regain control from there and threw the ship into an upward spin to starboard where he managed to react quickly enough to blow some shuttle-sized rocks out of his way; the pebbles that showered the _Falcon_ did nothing to weaken the Force-shield around it.

From that point on, the freighter was now several thousand kilometers off to the side of the monolith that Jacen had investigated, and the Star Destroyers were now moving from their hyperspace dropout positions to follow their target. But even as they did so, the _Falcon_ managed to find some suitable cover from the meteor shower that the capital ships had initiated by taking cover behind the monolith.

"I hope this can let you concentrate, Jacen!" Han called back. "Because I don't think you'll get a better moment than this!"

It was then that the Destroyers appeared around the bend that the monolith had provided, and not only did they renew their fire upon the _Falcon_, but they had also used their powerful tractor beams to sling some asteroids and asteroid fragments toward them.

But before any of the energy or physical projectiles could end up hitting the Force-shield around the _Falcon_, Jacen managed to teleport out of the ship.

And when next he appeared, he was aboard the bridge of one of the Star Destroyers; he didn't know which one it was, it was just one that he had chosen under the duress that was prompted by their attack.

The avatars around Jacen all looked at him and the sword that he carried; he had manifested himself in the bridge's center, only a few meters from the command chair, and every single unit of Abeloth's existence that looked at him emitted hisses that would put the most deadly, non-Force-using predator to shame.

Time to see if killing only one of these avatars will be enough, Jacen thought hopefully.

Instead of attacking the avatar who sat in the chair, as the obvious tactic might have been, Jacen instead threw the Abeloth Slayer to one of the copies behind him. The blade sank deep into a male Togorian avatar's chest before Jacen used the Force to recall the weapon into his hand. And before the hilt even smacked into Jacen's palm, the Togorian avatar fell back and disintegrated into nothing, prompting all of the other avatars on the bridge to screech in pain; the Jedi stood back to see what would happen.

Unfortunately, the rest of the avatars soon recovered and emitted their hisses at him once more.

Looks like there would have to be a lynchpin avatar, Jacen thought.

But even as that observation occurred to him, he still quickly swung the sword toward the avatar sitting in the command chair, figuring that he might as well hope that one of their deaths would end Abeloth once and for all.

However, the avatar sitting in the command chair suddenly disappeared before the blade even touched it. As it was, the sword only managed to decapitate the command chair's head.

Jacen looked around, and found the rest of the avatars disappearing from the bridge one by one in a sequential manner, starting from his left, and all of them were laughing at him as they disappeared. The Jedi then rushed to the avatar whom he believed would be the last one to teleport away, only for that copy to be the penultimate unit of Abeloth's existence to vanish; the avatar beside it, from Jacen's left, was the last one to leave instead.

_Damn it!_ Jacen thought. And if Abeloth had been smart enough to teleport her avatars from this Star Destroyer's bridge, she was probably smart enough to bring the rest of them from this ship so that Jacen couldn't kill any of them with his Slayer sword.

And she probably moved them to some of the other Star Destroyers; how she distributed her copies, Jacen knew not, but as long as any of them were alive, Abeloth was.

The nearest comm console to Jacen emitted an indicator beep. He hesitated, wondering if he should actually answer it, as he had a pretty good idea as to who was hailing him. But he ultimately pressed the answer button.

"Nice try, Jacen!" Callista-Abeloth's combined voice rang from the comm. "But while that sword may be powerful, we can still teleport from you! Of course, since you teleported aboard that Star Destroyer, it should be no problem for you if... oh, wait, what is that we sense from you? Fear? Now why would you be so afraid of us when you have that sword with you, Jacen? Hmm? Is it because... there might be limits to how often you can teleport? Don't think that we didn't gather any information from you when you could see through our eyes! It may not have been easy for us to see through yours, admittedly, but we gathered some information from your head. So good luck trying to escape from that Star Destroyer, Jacen!" The connection was then terminated from the other end.

The Star Destroyer that Jacen was aboard then rocked violently enough to knock him off his feet. He was able to stand up by using a nearby railing and he accessed a sensor station; apparently, two of the other Star Destroyers were now firing on the one that he was aboard. Joining in the barrage against the defenseless ship that Jacen was aboard were some flyby shots from a squadron of starfighters that had left this Destroyer's hangar bay mere moments before.

Abeloth really wanted him dead and his Slayer destroyed, Jacen figured sardonically.

So, he thought quickly as he stumbled his way off the bridge, with a horribly inconvenient wait time to teleport again and no ships aboard this Destroyer from which he could use to escape as it was being bombarded to oblivion, there was only one viable option for Jacen to escape: he had to find a vac suit.

Thankfully for him, it only took him a couple of minutes of stumbling for him to find a storage locker room in the corridor leading away from the bridge. He Force-blasted it open and, within moments, found a vac suit that was his size.

It took him a little longer than it would have had the Star Destroyer not been rocked by lasers and other projectiles, but Jacen did eventually don the suit and stumbled his way out of the locker room to the nearest emergency stairwell.

He allowed himself to plummet down to the stairwell's base; naturally, he used the Force to cushion his landing, then he Force-blasted the exit open to run down this next corridor to the hangar bay.

Jacen may not have a ship from which he could use to escape, but at least he would be safe from the vacuum of space.

Right when Jacen entered the Star Destroyer's hangar bay, that was when the ship started to suffer from critical and fatal explosions that began the chain reaction that would lead to its ultimate demise. The Jedi wasted no time running across the emptied space of the bay, dodging and slashing his way past debris that was flung from the explosions all around him.

Then, just as he reached the energy barrier that separated the bay from space, and as if on cue, the Star Destroyer exploded.

And he rode the impact of the resultant shock wave out of the hangar before allowing himself to fly freely through space.

It was then that the nearest trio of GA starfighters turned in his direction and began firing their lasers at him. As part of his natural survival instinct, even though he wouldn't have thought this would have worked intellectually, Jacen brought up the Abeloth Slayer so that one of its two flat faces was looking at the incoming fire.

But instead of deflecting any of the lasers or even just acting as a shield for Jacen when he would have been blown back through space from the impacts of the projectiles, the Slayer began to _absorb_ the lasers. Even the projectiles that would have hit any part of Jacen's body that wasn't being protected by the blade were automatically drawn to it, just as the Force Nullifier was drawn the Dagger of Mortis before they were combined into the weapon they were now.

And right when the sword absorbed enough of the energy, it was all Jacen could do to hang onto it as it unleashed a red volley of widespread light out toward the trio of starfighters; they were still firing at Jacen even as all this happened, but they only continued it for less than a second before they were wiped out of existence.

Abeloth had more reason to be afraid of this sword than she previously thought, Jacen figured with amusement.

However, as if to avoid anymore losses to her own ships, asteroids and fragments of them were tractored by the nearest Star Destroyer and flung specifically toward Jacen.

Naturally, he managed to slice through each and every one of them as if they were nothing more than mere training bolts that he would have been taught to deflect as an apprentice. As well, it was as if the Slayer itself, in cutting through the asteroids so easily, had consciously redirected the slashed fragments back toward the ships that Abeloth commanded, both Star Destroyer and starfighter alike.

As the remainder of the squadron that had been launched from the Destroyer that Jacen escaped from was annihilated by the redirected rocks, the Destroyer that had attempted to use the rocky debris against Jacen sustained a relentless assault from more of them. Even in spite of the turbolasers' attempts to obliterate the incoming shower, it ultimately cut through its energy shields and began shredding the hull; Jacen even noticed that some of the rocks were almost redirected, as if Abeloth had tried to use the Force to deflect them away, but those rocks only wavered slightly in their paths before running through the hull.

Oh, Abeloth _really_ had a lot of reason to fear this sword, Jacen affirmed to himself almost gleefully. But even within that glee, he couldn't help but be astonished; here he was, wielding such power, yet he felt as if he was merely holding a lightsaber and using it to fight off opponents on a face-to-face level. If he weren't in a life-or-death situation at the moment, and if he hadn't been amazed that the Slayer could do all this without changing anything in how he felt through the Force, Jacen would have laughed at the absurdity of it.

The next Star Destroyer then began to fire all of its turbolasers upon Jacen; naturally, he brought the Abeloth Slayer up. But while the lasers were absorbed, Jacen was, in fact, blasted back through space in such a way that he managed to lose his grip on the sword.

As it flew away, the energy that it had absorbed dissipated into nothing, as if the fact that it had left Jacen's hands meant that it couldn't redirect the energy.

Jacen tried to use the Force to call the Slayer back into his hand, only for his danger sense to tingle. He looked off to his right and saw an asteroid rocketing toward him. He used the Force instead to form a protective barrier around himself so that, in lieu of being killed instantly by the asteroid's impact on his body, he'd barreled away out into space, further away from the Slayer. He tried again to recall the weapon to his hand as the distance between him and it increased, but he was forced to shield himself from more deadly rocks that were coming his way.

And just when he was far enough away from the retreating Abeloth Slayer, another squadron of fighters from one of Abeloth's remaining twenty-two Star Destroyers was launched to fire weapons at Jacen.

Desperately, he used the Force to actually bring some more boulder-sized rocks and asteroids closest to him so that they took the hits; as a result, he had no choice but to quickly recall his personal Force-barrier around himself so that none of the reduced rocks' velocities would kill him, and he was then blown away again.

This time, however, he was now back on his way to the Slayer, which had been bouncing around between all of the asteroids; not even they could destroy the sword.

But right when Jacen's hand was merely inches from reclaiming the Slayer, he had to use the Force again to have himself bounced away from a small asteroid that had barreled toward him from the right.

However, that same asteroid impacted against the Slayer, carrying it on the same trajectory that Jacen found himself.

Then he had the sword in hand again.

And this time, he used the Force and the asteroids around him in a more controlled manner, as he now used them as propulsion through space to bring him to the closest Star Destroyer. He, of course, slashed through more rocks that would have been more inconvenient to him than not, and the sword practically did the work for him when it came to redirecting the energy of this latest starfighter squadron's lasers; they were reduced to atoms in mere moments.

But when this third Star Destroyer fired upon him, Jacen was ready. He used the Force to strengthen his hold on the Slayer, and this time, even though he was blasted back, the energy that was released back to the Destroyer managed to vanquish it as easily as if it had been one of the starfighters that was just destroyed.

Then the ultimate test of what the Slayer could do for Jacen came about as all of the twenty-one remaining Star Destroyers came about in close formation, circling around the relative pinprick that Jacen was.

And as one, they all fired a giant, unified salvo right toward him.

Jacen gripped the sword tightly, and only brought it up above his head before any of the lasers reached him.

But before any of those projectiles could reach him, the _Millennium Falcon_ swooped in from below, and the Force, as harnessed by several people sensitive to it aboard, pulled Jacen quickly out of the path of the circular salvo. As he was abruptly dragged up through space, all of the turbolaser fire had converged into one point beneath him and simply dissipated into nothingness, as they merely cancelled each other out.

As Jacen was carried away, the sword still thankfully in hand, his helmet comm crackled until his father's voice resolved itself. It was then that the _Falcon_ leveled out and took a direction out of the perimeter of the Star Destroyer circle, which they were already above, and Jacen allowed himself to be pulled in by the Force-sensitives who had a grip on him into the open airlock.

Once he was in, the outer door shut closed. The airlock quickly pressurized itself before the inner door opened, and Jacen walked in, already divesting himself of the vac suit.

He was met in the passenger cabin by astonished faces, even from Darth Krayt, who gave a special eye to the Abeloth Slayer in Jacen's hand. None of their astonishment was abandoned even when the _Falcon_ was rocked by more strikes from asteroid debris and grazing hits from Star Destroyer turbolasers; evidently, every Force-sensitive here aside from Jacen was still putting in at least partial concentration to maintaining their shield around the freighter.

"Hey, look, I know what Jacen did with that sword was impressive, everyone!" Han called from the cockpit. "But can you save your surprise for later and keep that Force-shield up! We're starting to take some damage here!"

Even Jacen helped in renewing the shield with his own abilities then; some of the rocking did have a lessened impact on the _Falcon_, but it was still pretty powerful.

"Jacen!" Luke called even through his own concentration of maintaining the Force-shield. "I think Callista might be the lynchpin avatar who might end Abeloth. Your mother told me while you were out there that she's aboard the Star Destroyer _Defender_. Leia located it; we're gonna try to get us there."

"Wait a minute," Jacen said. "How long was I out there? I kinda lost track of time."

"Uh... I think a little over half an hour," Luke said.

"Show me where the _Defender_ is, Uncle Luke," Jacen said.

For that, both uncle and nephew had to completely drop their contributions to maintaining the _Falcon_'s Force-shield as Luke guided Jacen to the cockpit. Leia showed Jacen where the _Defender_ was on her identification monitor without saying a word.

"I can distract her for you, Jacen," Luke suggested. "Make sure she doesn't try to escape."

Jacen nodded. "Dad, take us behind the monolith again; it'll buy me some time to concentrate on teleporting over to the _Defender_."

"Gotcha," Han said without hesitation.

A hand was then placed on Jacen's shoulder as Han obeyed his son's directive. Jacen looked and saw Krayt standing there.

"Take me with you," the Sith Master intoned. "I can still be of use."

Jacen nodded. "I agree."

Soon, the _Falcon_ managed to get well ahead of the Destroyers. In almost no time, she was behind the monolith again where the capital ships were out of sight for mere moments before they started to peak around both corners again.

Those moments, however, were all Jacen needed to teleport himself, Luke, and Krayt to the _Defender_.

When the three of them appeared on that Destroyer's bridge, with so many avatars around them and Callista sitting in the command chair, it was Luke who, from Jacen's right, dropped to his knees and bowed his head.

At that, all activity on the bridge froze.

"Luke... what is this?" Callista asked.

"I pledge my allegiance to you, Callista," he replied without looking up.

She took a moment to herself before replying in a disbelieving tone with, "Really? Well, if that's the case, then kill your nephew for me."

"Actually, I will be the one to do that," Krayt, who was at Jacen's left, said.

Less than a second later, he had his lightsaber out and active, and he quickly struck at Jacen. The young Jedi deflected the blow with no effort.

"Hmm," Krayt commented. "So this Slayer, as you call it, can absorb vast amounts of laser energy, but it has no effect on a lightsaber blade. Good."

Jacen then deflected Krayt's next strike; he then did it again. And again. And again. And again, until it reached a fast, rapid rate; faster than would have been necessary had Krayt been participating in an actual distraction.

And at the same time as the rate of Krayt's strikes against Jacen increased, one of Callista's arms turned into a tentacle that she lashed out at Luke; the Grand Master commenced a quick back-flip during which he took out and activated his lightsaber. When he landed, he found himself having to bat away Callista-Abeloth's tentacles while the rest of her avatars stood by around the bridge and simply watched.

Meanwhile, as the duel between Jacen and Krayt commenced, it soon became clear to the Jedi Knight as he fought off the Sith Master that he was actually trying to kill him now.

"Krayt, what are you doing?!" Jacen exclaimed. He was now being backed across the bridge because of his opponent.

"That sword will be mine, Solo!" Krayt replied through the ferociousness of his attacks.

"You're doing this now?! Right when we have the chance to kill Abeloth, you're pulling your betrayal _now_! I knew you were a Sith, but you can't save your treachery until _after_ we killed our mutual enemy!"

"You've served your purpose already! You got us this far! Now I will end you and I will have the glory of ending Abeloth as well!"

It was at that point that Jacen found his ground and managed to maintain it... for at least five seconds before he had to flip off to his left. But in two seconds, he found himself being backed away by Krayt's attacks yet again; they only increased in intensity, and Jacen quickly commenced more evasive flips and jumps away from the Sith Master, all the while trying to stay away from the observant Abeloth avatars around him.

Elsewhere on the bridge, Luke found himself in a similar predicament in his battle with Callista-Abeloth; even as his fight with the joined entity managed not to interfere with Jacen and Krayt's own duel, Luke was forced to leap and jump around at random intervals when Callista-Abeloth started to overwhelm him with her powerful tentacle attacks. There was only so much that Luke could take, he knew, as his Force-enhanced muscles were starting to tire from having to keep those damn tentacles away; Callista-Abeloth's attacks wouldn't give him an opening from which he could concentrate his blade upon either of the appendages.

"Stop resisting, Luke!" Callista-Abeloth said, both of their voices coming from her mouth. "You will become our King of the Stars! It is inevitable! We are inevitable!" Then Callista's features were morphed away in the midst of one of Luke's back-flips. "_I am inevitable_!" Another tentacle lash occurred, Luke was barely able to deflect it. Then he had to leap off to his right again before enduring yet another onslaught from Abeloth.

Then, by the end of that onslaught, Luke's lightsaber was finally knocked out of his hand, a tentacle knocked him to his feet, and the other wrapped itself around his chest.

"It is time, Luke," Abeloth said even as Callista's features reappeared on her.

And at the same time, Krayt won the duel against Jacen by pivoting into one of his tired defenses, smacked an elbow against the young Jedi's chest, and grabbed the sword out of Jacen's grasp with the hand that wasn't carrying his lightsaber.

As Jacen collapsed to the deck right around the point his uncle was knocked from his feet, Krayt leered down upon Jacen; his own lightsaber in one hand, the Abeloth Slayer in the other.

"You were indeed useful, Solo," Krayt commented. "But now, as I have said, that use has come to an end. I will grant you the honor of having some last words; what do you..."

The Sith Master trailed off as the hand that held the Slayer started to smoke. When he looked at it, he started to scream, as if it was then that the pain associated with the burning there finally registered in his brain.

He promptly dropped both the sword and his lightsaber upon the deck. And without another word, he ran off the bridge, paying no mind to any of the Abeloth avatars; they even let him leave, as if they already knew the fate that awaited him for having touched that sword.

And it was Krayt's screaming departure from the bridge that distracted Callista-Abeloth long enough that it prompted her to look over and see Jacen reach over and grab the Slayer again.

Callista-Abeloth was about to lash out another tentacle toward Jacen before Luke grabbed his natural hand on her head and turned her back to him.

"Callista, I miss you, Please, leave Abeloth; come back to this world." His voice and loving expression rang true.

The anger in her face subsided; even the features of Abeloth faded away into nothingness, and Callista's face, as Luke had remembered it from so many years ago, displayed a deep, profound sadness.

"Luke, I want to. I really do. But it's too late for me."

When sadness came over Luke's face, the features of Abeloth returned to Callista's visage, and she was Callista-Abeloth again.

And when she turned back to Jacen, he was already there and...

He plunged the sword into her.

A collective gasp came from all of the surrounding avatars on the bridge; and then it was as if time froze, for nothing happened. Everyone stayed in a tableau for what felt like an eternal moment.

Then all of the avatars on the bridge shrieked in both fear and pain before they all started to flake away into dust that settled all along the deck. The same happened to the avatars who were elsewhere aboard the _Defender_ and to all of the other copies that now occupied the other Star Destroyers in the neutralized Bubble of the Lost.

And as this happened, every Force-sensitive in this system felt a tremor in the energy field that they shared; it was a violent one, yes, but it also felt... like a cleansing. A necessary cleansing that made the Force itself feel as if it had been rid of some great dormant infection.

When all of the avatars in this system, when all of the avatars that Abeloth had ever taken on who still lived, finally died, only then did Jacen take the sword out of Callista-Abeloth.

A few seconds later, she dropped to the deck.

As the life started to fade away from her eyes, she said, "Luke... I'm so sorry."

Her eyes then glazed over; her features completely disappeared until Abeloth reappeared.

And that was when she turned into dust that settled itself along the deck.

A quiet moment passed between Jacen and Luke as they looked down upon Callista-Abeloth's ashes. They then looked up at each other and shared a nod before they left the bridge.

Minutes later, they found Darth Krayt lying on his back in the _Defender_'s hangar bay, having failed to reach any of the starfighters that were parked there.

Jacen and Luke approached the Sith Lord, who was now wheezing his dying breaths. The skin on his face that wasn't covered by tattoos displayed black lines that indicated that he was suffering from the effects of some fatal poison.

When he saw the two Jedi look down upon him, he sneered. Then he growled weakly as he looked up at the Slayer that Jacen still held.

"Of course," the Sith said in defeat. "That sword... was only meant... for you... Solo." He allowed his head to hit the deck; his expression changed into a futile smile. "My arrogance... was... my downfall."

"It is the downfall of all Sith, Krayt," Luke commented.

"That, and your treachery," Jacen added.

"I... cannot... argue... that." Krayt's wheezing only gained in rapidity. "The One Sith... will die... without me... You... have won... Jedi... It... is... over."

Krayt then began outright choking. And it was also then that the specter of Vergere just appeared between Jacen and Luke; neither Jedi even looked surprised as the ghostly Fosh bent down and touched a finger to Krayt's head.

His choking stopped; but his next breath, as peaceful as it was, was also his last.

Vergere was gone before Krayt's soul could ever be guided into an afterlife. And he was dead before the _Millennium Falcon_ boarded the _Defender_'s hangar bay t pick up Jacen and Luke.


	64. Chapter 64

Because of Abeloth's sudden takeover of so many Galactic Alliance Star Destroyers and other ships belonging to the government, Daala barely had time to assign reserve members of the GA Navy to track down the Destroyers that the entity had taken with her from Coruscant and various other territories belonging to the Alliance. Thankfully, Daala didn't have to pull away too many resources, since Jagged Fel was willing to send some of his own forces to follow Abeloth's Destroyers (especially since several of the Destroyers she took belonged to the Imperial Remnant). All of the Destroyers that she had left prior to entering the Chiloon Rift were found and promptly brought back to GA territory thanks to those reserve crews.

However, when it came to the twenty-four of the Destroyers that Abeloth had taken to the Chiloon Rift, twenty-one of them were discovered in a system called the Bubble of the Lost, which was notorious for its time-dilating gravitational effects; the other three seemed to have been destroyed based on evidence provided by long-range scans.

Daala decided to leave those Destroyers alone; she didn't want to lose anymore forces, and Head of State Fel agreed that that would be best. As a result, both Daala and Fel began a plan to have the Kuati shipyards increase production on Star Destroyers to replete the lost capital ships that Abeloth had taken into the Bubble.

So, with all those complications now behind them, Daala and Fel could now begin discussing a (seemingly) smaller problem.

"I hope you understand that Miss Veila's torture of that Mandalorian is not grounds to end unification between the GA and the Remnant, Fel," Daala said. They were both meeting in the Head of State's office in the Imperial embassy.

"Why shouldn't it be?" Fel asked. "Oh, I agree, what Tahiri did was wrong. However, I still have no intention of letting her die by one of your Mando thugs, Daala. Nor will I support your agenda against the Jedi. Therefore, I refuse to participate in anymore of these unification talks. The Imperial Remnant will remain as an independent entity as long as I live; it will be far from your influence."

Daala's face was raised in a grimace. "Just like that, huh, Fel? Veila tells you that Abeloth is gone because she feels it through the Force, and now you decide that because this entity is no longer a threat, you'll just end this whole agreement?"

"I do have that power, Daala," Fel replied evenly. "So, unless you'll be so bold as to deny, before the people of the Galactic Alliance, any potential Mandalorian attacks that may occur upon this embassy within the next several days, the Imperial presence here, including myself, shall be departing Coruscant by the end of the week."

"So be it, Fel," Daala said with a vindictive tone. "But if I find out that you'll be smuggling any of the Jedi who have escaped from the Temple's siege-"

"Spare me your threats," Fel interrupted. "You won't find me doing any such thing."

Daala sneered. "Would you like any assistance from the GA to aid in your departure from Coruscant, Head of State Fel?" she asked contemptuously.

"I don't think I will," Fel replied.

With that, Daala stood up and left the office without looking back.

Once the GA Chief of State was gone, Tahiri, who had been standing silently in a corner of the room, finally asked, "I think I might have enough time."

Jag nodded. "Then get on it; and remember not to get caught by any of those Mandos. After what you pulled-"

"Don't worry about it," Tahiri interrupted. "I'll be careful."

Thus, she left the room, preparing herself to help the scattered Jedi hiding throughout Coruscant's underworld to escape the planet.

. . .

As the _Millennium Falcon_ was on a return course through hyperspace for Hapes, Han scratched his head for a few moments; he was left puzzled by the news that he read from his personal datapad.

"Time-dilating gravitational effects?" he asked. He was in the _Falcon_'s passenger cabin with his family—excluding Allana, who had retired to her grandfather's personal quarters as she was being ferried back to Hapes—and the other Jedi. "We didn't experience any kind of-"

"It was the sword, Dad," Jacen reminded him as he hefted the Abeloth Slayer in both hands. "Once we left the system, the Bubble's anomalous effects took hold again."

"Damn, that thing really is powerful," Han commented. "And only you can wield it safely, Jacen?"

"As Krayt learned the hard way," Jacen said, "yes."

Jaina sighed. "You know, Jacen, Uncle Luke made me the Sword of the Jedi; yet you're the one who gets this awesome sword instead?"

Jacen chuckled mildly. "I guess so. I mean, I'd be happy to give it to you, Jaina, but, again, after what happened to Krayt, I don't think it'd be such a good idea. And I don't think the fact that you're my twin will help you much, either."

Jaina shook her head. "I wouldn't wanna risk it, either. But I'm still the Sword of the Jedi, remember?"

"I won't forget it," he said, mirroring his sister's mirthful tone.

"I take it you won't be forging a new lightsaber because of this, Jacen?" Luke asked.

Jacen shook his head. "On the contrary. I intend to get myself a new lightsaber, Uncle Luke; as great as its power might be, it's admittedly cumbersome."

"Can't easily hang it on your belt, for one," Han pointed out casually.

Jacen nodded. "Although I don't wanna get rid of this sword altogether. Considering that this thing was able to redirect the energy of a Star Destroyer and destroy it, it could still be useful to us even with Abeloth gone. We could find a place for the Slayer aboard this ship, so that if we're ever in any real need for it, I can just get it."

An uncomfortable silence overcame everyone else in the group, including Han. Jacen looked confused for a moment until his eyes locked with Luke's.

"Jacen... remember how tempting that this great power can be," Luke said. "Yes, this sword may be to help us down the road. Especially since we still have Daala and her Mandalorians as our enemies. But it's exactly because this sword can do so much that I'm worried that it will have an adverse effect on you; I think everyone here does."

Jacen looked around at everyone again; even the Jedi who were outside the meeting circle looked worried. The only one who didn't share that worry was Danni.

"You're all worried because you think that with this power, I could actually become Caedus, don't you?" Jacen asked.

The only ones who didn't look uncomfortably away from Jacen were Danni and Luke. But while Danni seemed to share in Jacen's own concern of everyone's doubts towards him, Luke looked like the possibility that his nephew just suggested could very well turn real.

"You don't consider that a possibility, Jacen?" Luke asked.

"Well... I guess it could happen," Jacen replied hesitantly.

"But you believe that you can control it, can't you?" Luke inquired.

Now Jacen started to look resentful. "Uncle Luke, I'm not Darth Caedus. I won't make the same mistakes he made just because I have this sword. Besides, if we just store it away somewhere aboard the _Falcon_, I probably won't even have to..." He trailed off as he started to see his uncle's expression become more judgmental as he went on.

"There's a thin line between confidence and arrogance, Jacen," Luke stated evenly. "You're right, you're not Caedus, I know that. I even saw his spirit when we were beyond shadows. But that doesn't mean that possibility still can't happen and that that sword won't serve as some kind of key that can open the door and lead you down the path of corruption in the future. You are literally the only one who can wield this sword, Jacen, and you used it to kill Abeloth, probably one of the greatest threats to the galaxy, if not _the_ greatest threat that the Jedi Order has ever faced. You have to understand how that can potentially warp one's mind with grand notions of power."

"I understand that, Uncle Luke, but-"

"If you're going to remind me of the fact that we are now going against Daala because her attack on us, you don't need to. And even with any potential enemies that we may face in the future, I honestly don't think that you should be anywhere near that sword. And if you think that you can indeed handle it, then at least try to see it from our point of view, Jacen; while Vergere may have been instrumental to helping us defeat the Yuuzhan Vong and Abeloth, don't forget that, whether she was a dark sider, a rogue Jedi, or something else, she taught you that if one seeks victory, principles—and Jedi principles, at that—have to be compromised.

"Yes, Vergere helped us down a path that allowed us to defeat the Yuuzhan Vong without exterminating them, which allowed us to preserve our principles in the process. But she did too many things, like keeping you in captivity and torturing you while feeding you half-truths and outright lies, that I can't rightfully sanction as the Jedi Grand Master. So, Jacen, if you want to maintain your status as a Jedi, you will take that sword and relocate it somewhere it can be safe. If a threat should ever emerge that necessitates this sword, or even if Abeloth does somehow return, you can at least return to it; but until then, this sword will not be needed for enemies who are less powerful than Abeloth. "

Jacen wanted to argue; like point out that if a threat as powerful as Abeloth did emerge and he somehow couldn't reach the Slayer, then Luke would be wrong to force him to bury it somewhere. But it was right then that Jacen caught himself; his uncle could very well be right about this. He may not always agree with Luke, but he knew that his uncle had too much experience with the dark side of the Force to not know of its allures.

Jacen didn't think that he followed Luke blindly, nor could he wholly disown Vergere for what she did to him while he was captive under her and the Yuuzhan Vong, But at the same time, he couldn't just outright disregard his uncle's warnings about the sword, even if it could still be useful and expedient; on the other hand, Vergere had taught him that it was at least sometimes necessary to turn away from Jedi teachings to solve problems that the Order couldn't solve with its strict adherence to its own rules.

But now that he was here, and even ignoring his uncle's threat about being excommunicated from the Order, he could see that there were times to follow Vergere's teachings and times to follow Luke's.

Now was the time to follow the latter.

"Very well, Uncle Luke," Jacen finally responded. "I'll bury this sword somewhere."

Luke smiled. "Thank you, Jacen. I'll give you time to think about where."

Jacen nodded in reluctant agreement.

"All right then, now that we got that settled," Han said, "I should be getting back to the cockpit. We'll be coming up on Hapes soon to return Her Majesty." Even with the Fountain Palace destroyed, Allana still asked to be returned to Hapes to address her people there as Queen Mother.

When both of Jacen's parents returned to the cockpit and the circle in the passenger cabin disbanded, a stray thought ran across his mind. He then turned to look to his father's quarters where his clone's daughter resided; her retinue of six guards guarded the entrance, with three on each side of the door.

Jacen left the passenger cabin to be confronted by the half-dozen guards.

"The Queen Mother didn't ask to see you," one of the guards said firmly.

"I understand that," Jacen replied, mirroring the guard's tone. "Can you ask her if she's willing to?"

The guards all looked at each other without saying a word. Then, when they all looked back at Jacen, the one who addressed him was the one to enter the captain's quarters.

A few moments later, she came back out and said, in a reluctant tone, "The Queen Mother is willing to grant you an audience, Jedi Solo. But leave that sword with us."

"If you touch this weapon, its metaphysical properties will kill you, in case you didn't know already," Jacen explained patiently.

"We are well aware of that," another of the guards said. "Just set it against the wall behind you."

Jacen nodded respectfully, did as that guard instructed, and walked into his father's cabin to visit his clone's daughter.

When the door was closed behind him, Jacen found Allana standing before him with a neutral expression, perfect posture, and a carefully-guarded Force-presence.

"Hello," she said. "What did you want to say to me?"

Jacen hesitated before he spoke. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry."

"Oh? For what?"

"For treating you like you meant nothing to me. I'm sorry that I did that; I know that, technically, I'm not your father, but I shouldn't have been so distant to you, even with everything that's occurred since Abeloth came into our lives. And I also came to apologize for speaking to your mother the way I did, as you saw; I didn't mean to lose my temper with her. I regret everything I said... especially since we were very close when we were younger." At this point, tears started to form in Jacen's eyes. "Especially since it was the last time I spoke to her."

Allana now looked like she was also on the verge of crying. "Then tell me... what am I to you?"

"I'm not quite sure yet," Jacen answered. "But if you'll allow me, Allana, I can be like a father to you. I can be what Darth Caedus tried but failed to be. If you think that what I said to your mother was unforgivable, then-"

Before he could say anything else, she rushed up to him and hugged him. Jacen was stunned for a moment before he reciprocated the embrace. Once that happened, she broke down crying; it was obvious that this was what Allana had been looking for ever since she learned that this was Jacen Solo, the man who was supposed to be her father, who has now come to properly fill that role instead of an evil Sith imposter.

When they finally separated, Jacen said, "But I didn't just come here to apologize or to get your approval. Again, if you'll allow me, I can take you where you can see both your mother and your... biological father."

Allana looked just as confused as she did sad right now. "How?"

"Take my hand," he said as he offered his right one. "I'll show you."

With some hesitation, she grabbed the hand that he offered.

"Hold on," Jacen said before he closed his eyes.

They then teleported out of the captain's quarters and reappeared beyond shadows.

"What is this place?" Allana asked.

"I told you. This is where you can see your parents. Follow me."

As he led Allana down the path that he and Darth Krayt had walked when they were here, Jacen saw the Sith Lord in one of the pools; he chose not to acknowledge the man who had caused him so much misery in his life. However, he did see Vergere laying peacefully; he offered a small smile in her direction.

Then he brought Allana to the pool that had Tenel Ka's spirit.

"Say her name," Jacen told her.

When Allana said her mother's name, Tenel Ka rose from the pool, looking as alive as she ever did.

"Mommy!" Allana exclaimed before embracing Tenel Ka, who quickly reciprocated her daughter's hug.

"Oh, Allana, I am so glad to see you again!" She then pulled back as realization crossed her features. "Wait, are you-"

"I'm all right, Mommy. Jacen brought me here."

Tenel Ka looked up and finally saw him standing awkwardly behind Allana.

"Hey, Tenel Ka," he said with a nervous wave. "I'm... sorry for what I said before you-"

"It is okay, Jacen. I forgive you. I see now that you are taking responsibility for Allana; to be the father she needs. For that, I thank you."

"You're welcome," Jacen replied.

Tenel Ka then resumed her hug with Allana and spent what seemed like, in this realm anyway, several minutes catching up with everything that happened.

Eventually, however, Tenel Ka had to return to the pool. It was all either mother or daughter could do to not break down crying at the brevity of their reunion, but Allana kept it together as she said, "Goodbye, Mommy."

"Goodbye, child," Tenel Ka replied.

They then released each other and Tenel Ka allowed herself to sink back into the pool beneath her. She once again resumed her corpse-like sleeping posture, as if she had never encountered her daughter here.

Jacen allowed Allana a moment alone before he asked, "Would you like to see your father?"

She shook her head wordlessly. "You're my father now," she replied with the utmost conviction.

Jacen smiled. "Well, be that as it may, you don't mind if I see him, Your Majesty?"

Allana let a few seconds pass before she said, "If you have anything to say to him, I'll leave you alone."

"Thank you." Jacen then walked to the pool containing the spirit of his clone, the man who took on the mantle of Darth Caedus. Allana stayed well away from the identical men before Jacen could say his clone's name.

"Caedus," he said.

The clone's eyes flashed open, revealing yellow-orange irises. He then rose from the pool and regarded Jacen with typical Sith contempt; Jacen regarded him with Jedi wariness, even though he knew that there was nothing that this man could do to him.

Caedus sneered. "I sensed you when you fell into my space. I couldn't quite sense you then, but now, my suspicions have been confirmed. The thought had crossed my mind that you might have been my clone, however-"

"You're the clone," Jacen interrupted.

Caedus looked at him in askance; shock then dawned on his face. "What?"

"Maybe you remember leaving Dathomir?" Jacen asked.

"Yes," Caedus answered cautiously.

"That was the last memory I had before I was taken by the Sith," Jacen explained. "Everything after that was all you. The Killiks, Lumiya, the Second Galactic Civil War; you were nothing more than what the Sith made you."

"You lie!" Caedus roared.

Jacen tilted his head inquisitively. "Tell me, can Force-spirits communicate with one another here, or is that something only living visitors like myself can do?"

"What does it matter to you?" Caedus asked angrily.

"I'm just wondering if you ever had a chance to talk to Vergere since you died," Jacen said. "To see if she could corroborate everything that Lumiya told you."

"No," Caedus said after a moment.

"Then let's see if that's possible," Jacen said.

He then turned and called out, "Vergere!"

Soon, the Fosh had floated all the way over from her pool and settled beside Jacen to face Caedus.

"Ah," she said once she arrived. "So you two have decided to speak to each other." The Fosh then looked over to the clone. "Tell me, did he tell you that you are his clone?"

"Of course. How did you-"

"He's telling you the truth," Vergere affirmed. "And that, I can assure you, Lord Caedus, is not a lie."

Caedus looked shocked. "But... but... Lumiya-"

"A mere stooge," Vergere said. "A simple-minded Sith mired in her own delusions. Had you been the real Jacen, had you been the man standing beside me right now, you wouldn't have fallen for any of her tricks or rhetoric. But you, Caedus, well... you were programmed, like a machine, to fit the will of one who sought to rule this galaxy instead of serve it.

"It's a tragedy, really, that you were unable to overcome your programming; I must wonder, had you known about your true nature, if you would have taken the path that you took. Alas, however, while you may have had Jacen's memories of his experiences with me, what you lacked were the actual experiences themselves and what Jacen took to heart instead of to his head.

"I feel sorry for you, Caedus. I really do. And this information will probably only add to your damnation here; honestly, I feel like Jacen should be chastised somehow for revealing this information to you. However, that's not my place to say."

"I'm a clone?!" Caedus exclaimed.

"Yes, you are," Jacen affirmed with a pitying whisper.

Caedus's mouth hung open in shock. But, just as it appeared as if he were about to cry, he composed himself and asked, "Was that all you intended to tell me... Jacen?"

"Not quite," Jacen said. "I also came to tell you that I forgive you. You see, while you may have been programmed to do what the One Sith wanted you to do to some extent, you were still an autonomous being, and therefore, still accountable for your own actions. However, I have to acknowledge that, in spite of whatever the Sith had done to you, you also have so much of me that it makes me wonder if I could have gone down the path you did. But let me tell you, I won't let that haunt me; I will let it guide me away from all that you did. I'll use you as an example to avoid as I progress in being a Jedi. And one of the first things that I intend to do properly that you failed to do... is raise Allana as my own."

"Allana?" Caedus asked. "She's... okay?"

"Yes. She's now Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium; and I intend to be by her side. Maybe I won't always be there; as a Jedi, my duties are to all of the galaxy. But I hope to be there for her when it matters most."

Caedus looked like he was going to sneer again, as if to offer some comment about how Luke ran the Jedi Order. But instead, his expression was composed as he said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome. And that's all I have to say to you."

Caedus nodded, then he finally sank back into his own pool.

When Jacen turned, he saw that Vergere had returned to her own pool.

Just as well, Jacen thought. There was nothing left to be said anyway, even to her.

He then came back to Allana's side.

"Let's see if enough time has passed for us to return," Jacen said as he grabbed his clone's daughter's—no, his daughter's—hand.

He closed his eyes and...

They had both returned to the captain's quarters of the _Millennium Falcon_.

Jacen checked the room's chrono to find that a little over half an hour had passed since he and Allana went beyond shadows.

"We should be approaching Hapes soon," Allana said. "Tell me, do you think your uncle will allow you to be by my side, or would that interfere with your Jedi duties?"

"Considering how much Hapes has to be rebuilt, Your Majesty," Jacen said, "I think he'll allow me to spend some time with you as you help your Consortium recover."

Allana nodded and walked out of the passenger cabin with her father.

When they rejoined the rest of the Jedi in the _Falcon_'s passenger cabin, Luke said to Jacen, "The answer is yes."

"What?" Jacen asked in confusion.

"You may help Allana rebuild the Hapes Consortium," Luke elaborated with a slight grin.

"You think you'll be fine going against Daala without me, Uncle Luke?" Jacen asked.

Luke nodded. "I think we can manage."

The _Falcon_ then dropped out into the Hapes system.

"All right," Allana said as she looked up at Jacen. "Let's begin."


	65. Epilogue

Not long after Vestara had finally returned to Kesh to inform the Circle of Lords about the tragedy of High Lord Taalon's task force that occurred in the Kathol Rift, she was in the middle of reporting the event when everyone in the Circle Chambers felt a great sense of relief come over them. It was as if a certain weight—a weight that none of them had ever sensed until now—had suddenly been lifted from the Force, and as one, Vestara and the Circle of Lords all knew what had just transpired.

Grand Lord Darish Vol stood up from his seat and declared, with the utmost certainty, "Abeloth has been vanquished! In the wake of so many losses in our Tribe, we have been blessed by the Force itself to finally be rid of her! We shall celebrate tonight, not only for the death of Abeloth, but in honor of so many who have died these past several days, our own Lord Taalon among them! Let it never be said that Sarasu or anyone else of our ilk died in vain!"

All of the other Circle members cheered in agreement; Vestara's own cheer was muted, if only because she still grieved for the loss of her father, who died because of Abeloth back in the Kathol Rift. Nevertheless, she ended up in the celebration later that night in the streets of Tahv, albeit she kept to herself by sipping on some beverage in one of the shops; had she been older, she would have doubtlessly lost herself in a miasma of alcohol in a vain attempt at trying to dull the pain of her mourning. Even her own mother was out celebrating; she had already cried with Vestara in the privacy of their home after she told her what happened to their husband and father, but when last Vestara saw her, Lahka Khai was dancing in the crowd outside the shop.

For the most part, as the crowd of humans and Keshiri reveled in the distraction provided on behalf of the Circle of Lords, Vestara was left alone in the small building. However, halfway into the celebration, she was met by High Lord Ivaar Workan, who sat across from her at the table that she had chosen; Vestara didn't tell him that he wasn't invited, as she knew that she didn't want to get into any trouble for refusing a High Lord to meet with her.

"What can you tell me about these Jedi, Tyro Khai?" Workan asked without preamble. "The ones that you encountered on Korriban and whom you believed to be Jedi over Nam Chorios?"

Vestara composed herself before she spoke. In spite of her plan to wallow in her grief, she knew that when she was to address a High Lord like Workan, there had to be some decorum even when they were sitting in an informal place like this.

"Unfortunately, High Lord Workan, the business that we had with the One Sith and Abeloth left little to no room for investigating these Jedi any further."

"Did High Lord Taalon have any intention on following up on either the One Sith or these Jedi had his task force successfully eliminated Abeloth?"

Vestara nodded. "He told me that that would be the case before we set out on the mission."

"Of course, now that Abeloth is, thankfully, out of the picture," Workan said, "we may investigate the One Sith and the Jedi further to see how they would act as threats to the Lost Tribe. However, considering the fact that you have borne witness to the losses of so many of our own since you set out from Kesh—such as your own Master, Lady Rhea, and your father—I understand if you would wish to remain here to be at your mother's side in your time of emotional healing. You can still ascend through the ranks of the Lost Tribe's hierarchy without ever having to venture out beyond Kesh's atmosphere, Tyro Khai; that is, of course, assuming that neither of these two factions ends up being a serious threat to the Lost Tribe.

"For now, Grand Lord Vol has said that for this time of grieving, none of us will leave Kesh unless it is absolutely necessary. I want your answer by the end of the week, Tryo."

Workan then stood up and walked out the exit of the shop, leaving Vestara with her thoughts once again.

By the end of that week, Vestara decided that, should the Circle of Lords be willing, she would return to space to investigate the One Sith and Jedi threats.

TO BE CONTINUED...

**Author's Note: Well, this is it. It's been quite a ride, but we've reached the end of this fic. But not to worry, folks! I intend to make a sequel whose first chapter I wanna write and publish this upcoming January, just in time for the new decade! With the threads of Daala and the Lost Tribe of the Sith still being threats even with Abeloth gone, I figured that this new content should be saved for 2020. Why? Because Halloween and Christmas are awesome and I don't wanna have working on this new fic on my mind while these holidays are on the horizon! So leave a comment down below and tell me how you think of the story.**

**Peace and may the Force be with you!**


End file.
